Crash Landing
by The Ultimate Ebil
Summary: An unexpected betrayal almost sends Tails to his imminent demise. The Natives of the island he crashes help him recover. The Betrayers plans will leave the world empty with just him and a fat Doctor. Rated T for Language & Violence. With Q&A.
1. Heavy Storm

Heavy Storm 

The constant barrage of lasers had battered the Tornado badly, but the twin tails fox was determined to get Sonic safely to Eggman's battle station. The cobalt blue Hedgehog was standing on the wing, taking care of any close range enemies, also warning tails of any on coming lasers. "Sonic hold on!" Tails shouted out. Sonic stooped low and grabbed the edge of the wing. Tails swerved the Tornado in a loop to avoid an oncoming rocket. The loop also gave them a small turbo boost.

"Tails! I see a landing zone!" Sonic called out. "On it!" Tails shouted back. They had to shouted due to the deafening noise of the lasers. Tails swerved again towards a futuristic pathway. Tails and Sonic had done things millions of times. 'This should be a piece of cake, just as long as Sonic keeps me informed of any las-' Tails thought

Suddenly, with no warning, one of the lasers burst the engine. The Tornado started to shake wildly. Another laser slammed into the cockpit. "Aah!" Tails yelped. 'F-Fuck!' Tails was startled and stunned. Why hadn't Sonic warned him! Blood was trickling down his face. "S-Sonic…" he gasped for breath. He looked up at the wing. Sonic wasn't there! Tails looked at the pathway. Sonic was standing there. Sonic turned around, and gave him a cheery wave, before dashing off into the distance.

"S-So….nic…..you….backstabbing…bitch…" Tails coughed. About a dozen more lasers barraged the Tornado. The cockpit was now on fire, and Tails had nowhere else to go. Tails hit the emergency escape button as much as he could, but to no avail. The ejector seat was jammed! The Tornado spiraled into the clouds below.

On dry land, a Bandicoot with blue jeans was looking up at the sky. He could hear noises of an air battle. 'What's going on up there?' he thought. He shrugged it off. "Meh, must be my imagination.." "Hey Crash!" His younger sister Coco called out. "Can you pass me the Transfarlooper?" Crash looked at her with a confused look. "….The Purple Thingy..."

"Oh that! Sorry sis," Crash laughed.

Later, Coco was in the depths of the jungle, just chilling. She was going to help out a farmer that was having troubles with several giant worms. She sighed. 'Nothing ever happens anymore' she thought. 'Who knows what happened to Cortex? Last I knew of him he was hanging upside down while his niece was trying to kill Crash.' she walked on wards.

Tails was now hammering on the glass on the cockpit. 'C'mon c'mon! Open!' he thought through the smoke. 'T-That's the last time I help Sonic with anything! T-That…bitch…" he coughed, then saw land coming up close. He also saw something else as well. He saw a female bandicoot. He seemed to forget completely about the fact he could _die_ at that time.

Coco heard something coming quite close. She turned sharply. Her pupils shrunk at the sight of a plane rocketing right towards her! She dived to the side like a bullet. The plane crashed and rolled on the ground. Parts went everywhere. When the ordeal was done, the plane in front of Coco's eyes was in flames. She could see something moving inside.

Tails was almost screaming with pain. The crash had rocketed him forward, and he smashed his skull on the control stick. His face looked like a splodge of red. He couldn't move any of his limbs. Slowly, and steadily, the smoke crept into his lungs. Tails couldn't do anything to stop. He fell unconscious, but with his eyes still open.

Coco ran over and knelt down by the black glass, which was upside down due to the crash landing. She took her bag off and rummaged around. She took out what looked like a drill. She pressed it against the glass. A noise came from the bizarre invention. The glass came off and smoke poured out. The smoke burned Coco's eyes a bit. Through the smoke though, she could see a kitsune like figure slope out in pain, twitching slightly. "Oh my god…" Coco gasped. She grabbed the body carefully and pulled it out of the wreckage. Upon seeing the fox's twin tails, she tilted her head in interest. She then shook her head. 'Keep the scientific facts aside Coco, you need to get this kid to a safe place. She tried the best she could to pick him up and take him back to her house.

In the house, Crunch was lifting waits as usual; Crash and Polar were showing Crash's pet T-Rex about racing in cars. Crash was showing Rex the engine, when Polar pressed a paw on the accelerator, making black smoke go POOF in Crash's face. Rex and Polar snickered. Pura was outside sunbathing with comical sunglasses. The whole house was shaken up by an earth shattering crash! Crash sped out side and looked up at the sky. "I knew there was something going on up there!" He said through gritted teeth. "Crash!" A voice shouted. Coco ran up from the jungle. "This little guy crashed from a plane! We need to help him!" Crash blinked out of sheer surprise. "Holy Crap…."

Later…

Tails's vision was severely blurred, and he couldn't see a thing. "Wh..where….am...I?"


	2. Sonic's Motives

Sonic's Motives

Tails was still quite shaky. He tried sitting up, but his back felt like shattered glass. He noticed several bandages around his arms and his ribs, and he could feel one wrapping around his head. "…." Tails was still confused about what happened. 'D-Did someone save me?' he thought. He felt a pain in his spine, so he laid back and observed the house he was in. It looked quite cozy. There was a fireplace in the main room he was in. Along the walls were several practical souvenirs. Tails judged from this that whoever lived here had quite a lot of adventures. Tails saw what looked like a jet propelled surfboard, and smiled. "Nice…." He said to himself. "So, you're up eh?" a voice behind him said. Tails turned slowly to see a large Bandicoot with a metallic arm. "Who….are you the one that saved me?" Tails asked. Crunch shrugged. It was my little sister that did the saving, I helped with the bandages. Oh, by the way, I'm Crunch." Crunch said. Tails smiled. "I'm Miles, but please call me Tails. What happened to your arm?" he asked. Crunch raised his Metallic arm. "I can't help it, I wasn't born with this. Some crazy sci-guy stuck it on me." Crunch explained in his Mr.T like accent. Tails let out a small moan of pain and lay back down. Crunch thought it would be best to leave him to rest.

Crunch went outside. Coco was in a deck chair with a Shade Umbrella above her. She was looking out to sea. She had a worried expression on her face. Crunch walked just beside her. "I-Is he okay?" She asked. "He just woke up. He's called Tails. He sounds pretty wreaked, but he's okay." Crunch told her. "Oh thank goodness…Crunch can you be a real help and get Crash, Polar, Pura and yourself to get his plane…please?" Coco asked Crunch. "Easy, you can go and check on him if you want, he's a nice guy."

Coco nodded. Crunch went to find Crash. He eventually found him by the plane crash site. He had a face on like 'What the hell?' He saw Crunch coming and turned to face him. "What the heck do we do with this?" he asked. "Coco wants us to lug to the garage. I have a feeling she wants to repair it for the little guy." Crunch replied. Crash bent down on his knees to inspect the craft. "What confuses me is, is that me and Polar searched the whole thing, and there's no trace of any other person ever being in this plane. What was the kid doing in this all by himself?!" "I expect we'll get answers in-depth when he gets better."

A group of different animals stood in a row, eagerly watching. Among them stood a Hedgehog, a Rabbit, and Echidna, a Bat and a normal human. Something was glowing far way in front of them. There was suddenly a large explosion. "Whoa…." Rouge smiled. "Sonic sure knows how to finish with a bang." "Well of course he does!" Amy Rose stated. "He is my Sonic." Cream and Cheese sighed. "Um...you do know he's not technically yours Amy…" "Chao Chao."

Something golden flew towards them. "It's Sonic!" Amy squealed with joy. Everyone cheered. Sonic landed, his golden fur went back to blue. His head hung. He didn't seem happy. In fact, everyone could see tears in his eyes. "Sonic?" Amy ran up to him. "Sonic what's wrong?" "T-Tails….he's gone…" This announcement stunned and silenced everyone. "Wh-What do you mean…gone?" Chris Thorndyke stuttered. "O-On the way to Eggman's base…Th-the tornado was taken completely by Surprise. The engine was destroyed. I...I tried all I could to save him…." Sonic breathed heavily through his distraught. "Sonic…." Amy whispered. She pulled him into a hug. Sonic didn't try to get away from her, like he usually did.

Later, everyone was talking about Tails's seemingly immediate demise. Sonic was in his room. Rouge walked by Sonics room. Her ears twitched slightly. She could hear something. She heard laughter. In his room, Sonics tears had turned to laughter. "He he…oh geez, this is too easy. Finally, that two tailed freak is out of my way.."

Rouge couldn't believe what she was hearing. She opened the door. "Well hun, seems your true colors have finally surfaced.." She growled. Sonic turned to look at her. "So, you heard all of it…" He smiled. Sonic suddenly lunged forward and grabbed Rouge He reached for a gun under his bed. He pointed it at Rouge's head. "erk….d-don't hurt me…" Rouge wimpered. "Here's what I'm up to, I want it to be like the olden days…just me and Eggy." Sonic growled. "B-But…P-lease don't kill me…I-I'll do anything.."

"Anything...?" Sonic smiled evilly.

Coco walked slowly into the main room where Tails was resting. Tails was still awake. He had a lot on his mind. He couldn't remember what happened to him. He could still remember who he was, and where he came from, unfortunately. He didn't exactly have a childhood to be proud of. "Um…hello?" Coco said quietly. She was feeling rather shy for some reason. Tails turned his head slightly. 'That's the same girl I saw earlier before I crashed….but…but what caused me to crash….I...can't remember' Tails thought. "H-Hi…And you are?" Tails asked. "I'm Coco...my brother said you were Tails." Coco said. "Y-yeah…" "You alright? You sound really shaky." Coco knelt down by the sofa. "I'm fine…." Tails smiled shakily. He sat up slightly. "Tails…I just want to know what actually happened, like what were you doing in a plane by yourself?"

Tails was silent for a while. "Can't you remember?" Coco said. "I-If I had something to jog my memory…"

"Hey you two." Crash came in. "Tails, this is my other brother, Crash."

"Hey, we found this in your plane," Crash reached in to his pocket and pulled out a sparkly green emerald. "A-A Chaos Emerald!" Tails gasped. Every little detail about what happened in the sky came rushing back to him. Tails blinked. "Tails?" Tails seemed slightly startled.

"I…I remember…" He said. His fist crunched up into a fist. "He….Sonic…" he growled silently. "Who's Sonic?" Crash asked. "The coldest blooded backstabber I've ever met…"


	3. Tornado III

Tornado III

Tails had never felt so angry in his life! His fists were shaking with extreme anger. You could see the hate in his eyes. Coco certainly could. "W-Whoa Whoa! Tails calm down." Coco said calmly, trying to get him to stop. "…" Tails was shaking slightly. "I...I have to get home…" he mumbled. "What? Y-you can't! Not in this state." Coco protested. "Everyone at home's going to think I'm dead!" Tails stammered. He sat up….too quickly…A flaring pain shot through his back. Tails screwed up his face through his pain. "S-See..." Coco said. "We could put your plane back together, if that would help." Crash said. "B-But….it took me days to build that.." Tails stuttered. "Wait….you built that…all by yourself…" Crash said, jaw wide open. Tails nodded.

"Wow…I've never seen a craft with so much aerodynamic characteristics. It must of taken at least 3 plutonic devices in order to get that Aerotronic Craft into the air…" She looked around, Crash was blinking, confused as always, but Tails was looking amazed. "How…How do you know that?" He gasped. Coco was amazed as well. "You know that stuff?" "O-Of course I do, how else do you think I built that…" Crash was watching it all. "Why do I get the sudden feeling you two are going to get along pretty well?" he smirked. "Wha-?" Tails gulped, blushing a little. "Crash, Me and Tails know similar things, so what?" Coco objected. Crash's smile widened, he could see that Coco was also blushing slightly.

"Y-Yes…Anything…" Rouge gulped. Sonic lowered the gun from Rouge's head. Rouge breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay, listen closely, Tails is the only one I will kill, that being accomplished, I plan to send everyone else into Chris's Dimension." Sonic explained. "But how hun?" Rouge smiled, folding her arms. "Only Tails had the intelligence to build a warp hole to do something like that." Sonic snickered a bit. "That's where his constant babbles about mechanical objects come into use. I know how to build stuff easily." He said. "So what do you want me to do?" Rouge asked, her smile fading.

"Something you do all the time. You need to get at least chaos emeralds 3 of the chaos emeralds." Sonic said. "So we have a deal. I get the Chaos emeralds; I don't get the same fate as everyone else." Rouge said.

"Deal!"

The location was the Large Garage in the Bandicoot residence. Crunch's forceful strength allowed him to bring the wreckage of Tails's plane. Coco and Tails were waiting. "Are you sure you want to do this Tails?" Coco asked. "I-I'm sure. I've been through worse." Tails nodded. Crunch brought the plane I, much to the amazement of Tails. With the help of Crash, they propped the Tornado up with mechanical supports. Coco got to work inside the Tornado; she found the main engine within seconds. "Okay, the main engine seems to have been penetrated by an electrical source of power, projected from a 2 mile distance." "Right." Tails nodded. Coco smiled and went back to repairing the engine. It was nice to have someone whose IQ matched up to hers. Finally she could talk about her mechanical stuff and not confuse him. Tails found some more damage of the side of the ship he was working on. It was one of the main wing engines. 'Darn…that's going to take forever to fix.' he thought, with an annoyed look on his face. As he leant forward, a sharp pain in his back rippled through his body. 'C-Crap...' he choked slightly, gradually going to his knees, shaking a bit. "Whoa! Tails are you alright?" Crash called up. At this, Coco's attention was drawn to Tails as well. "Tails! What happened?" She called out, rushing over.

"…I..I think my spine…." Tails stammered. He grabbed the hand rail and hauled himself up. The pain shot through his back again. This time it nearly knocked Tails out. His eyes were twitching a bit. "Crash! Help him out of here." Coco called out to Crash.

Tails was back in the room he was in earlier, but he was sitting up. He was feeling bad about leaving Coco to repair the tornado by herself. She came in later. "You okay now Tails?" She asked. Tails nodded. "S-Sorry for leaving you to do by yourself…" he coughed slightly. "Its okay Tails, I've built vehicles that can travel through the zero oxygen world of space on my own." Coco said. Tails smiled and nodded. There was a sudden tapping of the door. "I'll get it." Crunch said. Crunch opened the door but didn't see anyone. "Down here you big lummok!" a high pitched squeak came from below. Crunch looked down. He saw a small black robot. It then dashed in between Crunch's legs and into the main room. Tails recognized the little thing immediately. "Huh? Bokkun?" Bokkun jumped up on top of a stool and set a small yellow TV. "Message for you!" He squeaked as he pressed a button. The reception fuzzed and made an annoying noise. Bokkun thumped it. "Tails? What's this?" Coco asked. "Message from Eggman." Tails replied. "Who?" "You'll see." Then the reception fuzzed in to show a fat man in red. "Is this thing on? Good. So Tails, I see you're recovering all ready." Eggman said. "Eggman, you have no idea what I just went through earlier." Tails said. "I know right! I thought _I_ was a meanie. Sonic's actions shocked me more than anyone. What baffles me is how you survived!" Eggman stated. "It couldn't have happened without some help…my new friends are helping me fix the Tornado." Tails smiled. "Well, good for you, and if you need any help getting your own back on Sonic, you know who to call. And also, I brought a little 'Get Well' gift." Eggman smirked. At this, Bokkun reached into a bag and pulled out two shiny Emeralds. "Hey…Thanks Eggman!" Tails smiled. "Don't mention it!" Eggman waved goodbye as the TV flickered off.

Much later, it was dark outside. Coco had got the main engine repaired, with one of the Chaos Emeralds powering it up. "So basically, the Chaos Emeralds have a strong radioactive power that can boost all the statistics of any mechanical item on the earth?" She said. "That's exactly it." Tails replied, he was working on the wing again, with Crash's help. "Hmm…That sounds exactly like what our Power Crystals do." he said. "When you think about it…yeah it does!" Coco laughed. "Power Crystals?" Tails asked. "Power Crystals are the main power supply of these islands. Without them, the island would sink into the sea." Coco explained. "I've got one here," Crash said. He held out his hand, which glowed pink. Then a mystical Crystal appeared. "Wow…that's awesome. And these things are like emeralds?" Tails blinked in amazement. "If these Crystals and the Chaos Emeralds were used in unison, the results of the radioactivity would be a groundbreaking success or a complete over load of Autoactive energy!" Crash was looking blankly at Tails. "I have no idea what that is…." Coco looked outside the window. "Its getting pretty dark, we should probably continue on this tomorrow." She said.

Later, Coco was wondering where Tails would sleep. "I can sleep on the couch in the main room if that's okay." Tails said. "Are you sure?" Coco said. Tails nodded. "Well…okay…good night." She smiled, as she went up the stairs. Crash was up there waiting for her. "So, what do you think of him?" he asked. "Well…he's alright I guess…he knows a lot…he's easily likable. …." she said, blushing a little. Crash smiled. "I knew it, you a have a major soft spot for him." Coco's blush suddenly maximized. "A-As a friend I meant!" She choked. "Yeah, keep telling yourself that…" Crash laughed, walking back to his room. Coco stood there for a while, still blushing slightly. "……"


	4. Tiny squish Puny Foxes!

Tiny squish Puny Foxes!

Night Time. Tails was sitting up on the sofa. He was thinking about what happened. 'Why?' was the question he'd been asking himself all night. He could escape it, or get to sleep because of it. 'Why had Sonic left me to die? Why had Eggman given me two chaos emeralds? Why were the Bandicoots being so nice to him? He'd never done anything to help them or anything…' Tails thought. He sighed at stood up, and walked over to the window. The moon glistened over the sea. 'Wow…that's he most amazing view I've ever seen…The Bandicoots sure are lucky…' he thought in sheer amazement. He was starting to wish that he could stay here a little longer. Slowly he took a step outside, just to get a better view of the wondrous sight. He stood there, mesmerized. The moonlight sparkled in his eyes. The light reminded him off the time Cosmo sacrificed herself… Tails hung his head. Why? If he had any sense, he wouldn't of caved in. If it also had meant Sonic wouldn't be around. That would almost been worth it. Tails sighed and sat down, the waves gently lapping against his red and white shoes.

Coco couldn't sleep either. She had a bad gut feeling. A long time without an attack from Cortex, it seemed too good to be true. She got out of bed and put her shoes on. She went out the back door, so she didn't see Tails. Round the back and up a cliff, there was an ancient temple. This temple was where Aku Aku spent his days. She went inside. Old columns kept the place standing. You could see they had been through a lot. At the back of the temple, there was an old carving. It was Aku Aku's face/body. Coco walked up to it and put her hand gently on it. 'Aku Aku…I need to know something about the future…' she thought. The carving lit up a bit. It had a nice light blue. But then it turned blood red. "!!" Coco was shocked. This had never happened before! A giant red glowing portal crackled into life before Coco's eyes. Coco took several steps back. There was a loud crack of lightning, and something came from the portal. The giant figure eyed Coco. "Tiny squash Bandicoot now!"

The crack of lightning made Tails jolt. In a second, he was up on his feet looking around. He saw more blood red lightning crashing into a temple. Slates went flying from what he could see. He also heard a yell of fear. Tails blinked in surprise. 'That's Coco!' he thought. He got his tails spinning as fast as he could, maximizing his speed, and flew towards the temple. 'I will return the favor Coco..' he thought.

Rouge flew over the night sky. Success with the chaos emeralds wasn't too huge, she'd only found one so far. She had only found. Rouge knew the best person to go to for the Emeralds. She landed slowly on Eggmans airship. She knew it like the back of her hand. She crawled through the ventilation shaft until she came to the Eggmans main room. Eggman was tapping some buttons. It didn't look like he was doing anything of importance. Rouge hammered the vent down and landed behind Eggman. "Hey Eggman." She smiled. Eggman spun round in his chair. "Rouge? What are you doing here, I have no time for you." He sighed. "Shut it. I'm not leaving until I have your chaos emeralds!" Rouge snapped. "The Chaos Emeralds? Well I'm afraid you're out of luck there." Eggman said, spinning his chair round and returning to his work. "What do you mean?" Rouge growled. "I sent them to Tails so that he could get home quicker."

Rouge suddenly stopped. "Did you say…Tails? Tails is still alive!?!"

Coco stood, paralyzed with fear. Tiny walked towards her, his every footstep shaking the temple. "Tiny gonna squish you for good now!" He shouted. He swung a punch that would level a giant building. Coco yelped and dived out of the way. Tiny swung his other arm round to catch Coco, but she rolled and hid behind one of the columns. Tiny looked around, not seeing her go behind a pillar. "Bandicoot can't hide forever! Tiny find you in the end!" Tiny roared. He suddenly smashed a pillar down. The temple shook. Coco was scared stiff by now, and her breathing became fast. Tinys ear twitched slightly. "Tiny found you!" He growled. He kicked the pillar Coco was behind. Coco yelped again as the pillar crushed her underneath. She crawled out, shaking with fear. Tiny grabbed her by the neck. "Tiny got you now…"He snickered. He reared his fist back for a final blow. Coco clenched her eyes shut, waiting for the inevitable. Just as Tiny was going in for the kill, something grabbed his arm. Tiny looked round with rage. "You touch her again, you'll pay so dearly." Tails threatened.

"Tiny no scared of Puny fox!" Tiny roared. He dropped Coco and tried to hit Tails. Tails literally vanished into thin air! In actual fact, Tails was faster than the eye, and he ended up behind Tiny. He propelled himself upwards with his tails and smashed Tiny with two sharp kicks. Tiny fell forwards. He got up and roared so loud, the temple was like an earthquake. Tails stood his ground as well as he could. "Tiny will now squish you like bug!" He shouted. He smashed Tails into the wall. "Tiny Beat you!" he roared. Through the rubble however, Tails managed to stand up. "Heh, you're pretty strong." Tails smiled.

"Tiny not Pretty Strong, Tiny VERY Strong!" Tiny bellowed. "Well it seems Tiny needs speaking lessons, because I can't take anyone that doesn't have the correct grammatical use of the language we speak seriously." Tails smiled. Tiny was confused. "Err…gramical?" He pondered. "Exactly what I mean," Tails laughed. He started to spin his tails extremely fast. Then, faster than a bullet, he started circling Tiny. Tiny tried to keep watch on him, but got dizzy very easily. The wind started to pick up underneath Tiny's feet, and soon, a blistering tornado had scooped Tiny into the air. Tails was flying just beside him. "This is where it ends!" he shouted. He started up a midair Spin dash. When it was fully charged, he rammed into Tiny, sending him flying out of the temple and into the sky, where a star twinkled, showing that he'd fallen far way.

Tails flew back to his feet, and ran over to Coco. "Coco! A-are you okay?" he stuttered. Coco coughed, a line of blood running down her face. "Y-yeah…I'm ok now…W-what about you? …" She asked. "I'm fine, why?" "That was a pretty hard hit you know." "Nothing I haven't taken before." Tails smiled. Coco laughed a bit and smiled. "Thank you Tails..."

Later, Tails was helping Coco back to the house. When they got in, Tails noticed that Crash and Crunch hadn't moved a muscle. "They're very deep sleepers, well…Crash is anyway." Coco said. It was very true, they hadn't budged.


	5. Like the Fleas in yor fur

Like the Fleas in your fur…

The sun rose above the sparkling sea. Some seagulls were flying over the island. The noise of constant cawing woke everyone up. Tails opened one eye. He sat up and yawned. 'Geez… what a night…that tiger, who was he? Who sent him? Whoever it was, they mean business…better be on watch in the future.' He thought. He looked out of the window. He marveled at the awesome view. "It looks just as good during the day." There was a mewing noise by his feet, followed by constant purring. Tails looked down to see a little baby tiger. Pura rubbed against his leg. Tails smiled at the little tiger. 'This must be their pet.' he smiled. There was an arf by his other foot. A polar bear was looking up at him. Tails laughed, but was heavily confused. 'How does a polar bear survive in this climate? I'll ask Coco or Crash later..'

There was a sound of a heavy splash, like a belly flop of some sort, followed by a shout of pain. Tails spun his tails and zipped towards were the sound was coming from. He saw Crash getting out of the water soaking wet. "Crash! Are you okay?" Tails called out, running over to him and helping him out of the water. "I-I'm fine." Crash smiled. "What were you doing anyway?" Tails asked. Crash pointed up to a Totem Pole. On the top, was a sparkly Crystal. "I've been trying to get that crystal for weeks now! I will get it!" Crash sounded seriously determined. Tails looked up at the large Totem Pole. "Doesn't seem too hard." He said. "Hey, unless you can fly or something, you can't get close to it without…..out…" Crash trailed off, as he saw Tails hovering just in front of his face. "You can fly?!?" Crash gasped. "You better believe it!" Tails laughed. He grabbed Crash's wrist and started flying toward the top of the Totem. They landed on the top perfectly. "Wow, that was awesome. That must be handing were you come from." Crash smiled. "Well…it was…" Tails sighed. Crash was confused, but judging Tails's tone of voice, it sounded like something he didn't want to talk about. Crash walked towards the Crystal, which was gently hovering in midair. Tails walked beside it. "Wow, this is the power supply of your island?" Tails smiled. "Yep, These seem to pop up every 5 months or so. They keep the island stable and secure." Crash responded. "From what?"

"Maybe from me." A voice said behind. Crash and Tails spun round, to see a man just about taller than Tails. He had a giant head with a metallic N on it. "Surprised to see me Crash?" The man said. Crash growled at him. "Cortex…" He growled. "Like the fleas in your fur I keep coming back!" Cortex laughed. "I…do not have fleas!" Crash shouted. Cortex took his attention off Crash and looked at the Twin Tailed Fox beside him. "Hmm…humanoid fox, two tails, about 8 years old…hmhmhm…you must be that fox Tiny was complaining about." Cortex said. "You mean that tiger that attacked Coco last night?!" Tails shouted. "Yes that's the one." Cortex smiled, stroking his bead. Tails then literally stared daggers at him. "What do you want anyway?!" Tails growled. "The Crystal, as always." Cortex said. A small hover board descended behind him. Cortex jumped on it, and got a laser gun from his pocket. "This time there will be no slip ups Crash!" He laughed manically. He aimed his gun at Crash. "Unlike last time you can't return it!" Cortex shouted. "Bring it! I won't let you harm anyone again!" Crash shouted back. Cortex fired a giant plasma shot at Crash. 'He says I can't deflect it…I can't take any chances!' Crash thought. He got himself ready to strike. Tails was seemingly analyzing the speed and trajectory, not to mention the look of it. "Crash, move! That Blast is made of electromagnetic characteristics. If it hits you you're dead!" He called out to Crash. "Well, you're quite informed aren't you?" Cortex smiled.

Eggman was tapping buttons into his scanner, Rouge was eagerly watching him. "Okay, nearly got him. He's on an island my scanners report as 'Wumpa Island'." Eggman said. The radar suddenly went haywire. "What the-?" Eggman shouted, frantically trying to control the constant alarming. Rouge looked out the window. "Oh no…Eggs! Look out!" She shouted. She was too late, a laser barrage from a ominous blimp with an N on it had ripped through the Death Egg, and it was up in flames in seconds.

Crash had dodged the blast, and with Tails's guidance about Cortex's different gizmos had helped a lot. Cortex tusked. "Hey Freakshow!" He shouted out to Tails. Tails stopped in mid flight. His fist scrunched up into a fist. "Don't…ever…call me that again." He growled. "Cortex ignored him. "Anyway, Present from Tiny!" Cortex grinned. He switched his gun to the 'XO' setting. In a movement almost invisible to the eye, he aimed at Tails and fired a black and red beam at him. Tails went wide eyes at the speed of the blast. He zipped upwards, but his leg was scorched. He fell to the ground immediately. His knee had gone a dark blackish color. Tails was in slight pain, but was ok enough to continue. He got to his feet, hobbling slightly. "My, you don't give up do you?" Cortex tusked. "Hey Braniac! Shut your mouth and fight!" Crash shouted, jumping off one of the spikes on top of the totem pole and launched a kick that took out of the engines of Cortex's hover board. "Gah!" Cortex yelped. He smashed down on his face, comical cartoon stars flying out. Tails crouched down low to the ground. In a second, he was rolled up into a ball, spinning very fast. Tails couldn't have been the sidekick of Sonic without knowing how to do the spindash. Cortex wobbled up to his knees, dazed. Tails then rammed forward at an extreme speed. Cortex shook his head at the lightning quick orange ball rocketing toward him. "Waah!" he yelped, as he was slammed into. He was sent flying into the sky with a twinkle. After he was sure Cortex was gone, before dashing over to Tails. Tails was getting to his feet, but his knee looked just wrong. "Tails? Are you okay?" Crash asked. "J-Just about…" Tails smiled. Crash grabbed the crystal. The crystal flashed, as a recognition that it had been claimed. Tails's leg felt tingly. His leg was slowly going back to its natural orange color. "How about now?" Crash asked again. Tails blinked in surprise. HE shook it. It didn't hurt or twinge a bit. "I-It…It feels good as new!" he choked in surprise. "The Crystals have been my lifesavers more than once." Crash smiled. He started to carefully climb down the totem pole, heading home to put the crystal in the large collection of crystals keeping there island alive.


	6. Carbon Copy

Carbon Copy

"Hey Crash, can I ask you something that's been bothering me since this morning?" Tails asked. "Yeah sure, fire away." Crash smiled. "Earlier today, I met your pet Polar Bear today, I was wondering how it survives in this climate? Don't Polar Bears usually live in an Artic environment?" Tails questioned. Crash laughed. "Well, Polar used to be a normal Polar bear, I met him in an Artic world, poor thing was struggling to survive somehow. "With all the different wildlife around, killer whales and stuff, its was actually no wonder he was finding it hard." Crash explained. "I took him away from the suffering he was in, and brought him home here." Tails was confused. "But, surely you know that this isn't the right climate for him?" He said. "That's were the power of Crystals come in handy. The Crystals are capable of all sorts of power. Coco had the know-how of how to harness the power of them." Crash said, spinning the Crystal on his finger. "She made Polar a collar that's in his fur. It allows him to survive in different environments." Tails was amazed. "She can build a device that can change the way a living mammal can adapt to any wild life?" he blinked.

_Th-This in unreal! Coco has like the same IQ as me! _Tails thought. _I..I didn't think anyone else could know so much...This...This means...there IS someone like me… _

Someone tapped him on the shoulder, "huh?..." Tails blinked out of his thoughts. "..Anyone in there?" Crash laughed. "S-Sorry…" Tails laughed nervously. "Do you usually drift off like that?" Crash chuckled. "Sometimes…when I'm thinking.." Tails admitted.

They eventually got to Crash's house where Pura greeted them with a quick lick on the face each. "I've had that for at least 4 years now, and I still haven't gotten used to it." Crash rolled his eyes. Inside, Coco came out of the workshop. "Where did you two run off to then?" She asked. "Check it sis! I finally got that Crystal that was on top of that Totem pole!" Crash smiled, showing Coco the crystal. "Awesome! How did you get it? You've been trying but failing for the past two months!" Coco said, a huge smile appearing on her face. "Well…Tails has more than just a High IQ like yours…..he can fly to." Crash smirked. Coco's eyes went wide. "_Seriously?_" She gasped in surprise. Tails rolled his eyes. "You had to say, didn't you Crash?" He laughed. Just because he felt like he had to do it to prove it, he spun his tails and hovered above the ground for about 5 seconds. "That is awesome. You're really lucky…I wish I could fly." Coco smiled. "Anyway…" Tails smiled, feeling fuzzy after the compliment Coco gave him. "..how's the Tornado?" he asked. "Its doing very well. I upgraded the wings so they've become more streamlined, allowing it to become more aerodynamically fluent in mid flight." Coco smiled. "That's great! We just need to repair the throttle, and the booster jets and its ¾ done!" Tails smiled back. "I'll leave you two to it then." Crash said, going outside.

As soon as Crash stepped outside, he felt a strange surge flow through his body. _Wh-What the-he's here…_ Crash thought. He ran through the jungle and vanished in the shadows.

In the workshop, Coco and Tails were starting to finish off the Tornado. Tails was amazed the work Coco had done while they out getting the crystal. "How long did it take you to rebuild these?" Tails asked in amazement. "About…roughly half and hour for both of them." Coco replied smiling. "Woah…it usually takes me that long as well…" Tails blinked. Coco was surprised. She looked up from her work. "Really?" She asked. "Yes..." Tails said, starting to smile slightly. Coco smiled to. "Let have a race to see who can fix the booster engines quicker." She smirked. "You're on!" Tails laughed.

Far away in the middle of the ocean, a wrecked air ship floated along the sea. Eggman's and Rouge's heads popped out of the water. Eggman was still daze. "What the fuck just happened?"

In the jungle, Crash came to a clearing. He looked around. The surge of power he could feel was close. He must be around here…Suddenly a shadowy figure surprise attacked Crash with a roundhouse kick. Crash fell to the floor, but instantly rolled back to his feet. Standing before him was a white bandicoot, with green tattoos, and his jeans had a green tint. He looked exactly like Crash "Where have you been then?" Crash growled as they circled each other. The White Bandicoot just stared him down. "You let Cortex's reign of terror overcome you Carbon…you…after that adventure we went through…just why.." Crash growled. "Why is not the question. But you should know it is my duty to destroy each and every living element that lives on this island!" Carbon snarled. "It won't be my easiest battle...but I have no choice..." Crash said, getting into a fighting stance.

Back in the workshop, both Coco's and Tails's competitiveness came out from hiding. Both were adding there finishing touches and….

"DONE!!" They shouted in unison. There was an awkward silence…"So…who won?" Coco smiled. The two burst out laughing. "Ha ha! A-are you serious?!" Tails said through breaths in-between laughs. "A-are you?!" Coco smiled. "Y-Yeah!" Tails smiled back. They laughed harder. After the laughter had died down, they went round each others sides to check the work they had done. There was a sudden smash of glass. "Get Down!" Tails shouted immediately. They both dived under a work table. After it had gone, Tails slowly crawled out from under the table. He saw something reflect in the new moon. He crawled up to it a picked it up. There was an all too familiar liquid on it. The very sight of it made Tails shiver all over. Coco crawled beside him. "Wh-What is it?" She gulped. "B-Blood…" Tails gasped.

There was a loud, metallic thud nearby. Part of the wall had a giant dent in it. Tails spun his tails to reach the smashed window. He looked outside. "Crash!" He shouted. Coco was shocked. "C-Crash!?! Crash!" She called out, a panicking tone in her voice. She ran outside. They both saw Crash, unconscious, blood continually spreading across his face. "Crash! Big…Brother!" Coco gasped. She sat him up against the wall he was KO'd by. tails saw something weird floating around in Crash's blood. It was a whitey green glowing substance. _That's Carbonitrate…_ He thought. His heart suddenly began to pick up the pace.

_I don't the feel of this….... _


	7. Do or Die

Do or Die

Tails knew something was up. He and Coco had just found Crash KO'd on the sand, and Tails saw a substance called Carbonitrate floating in his blood. As the night started to appear, Tails could feel something creeping in the shadows of the night. His heart was now beating almost too fast for his own good. Coco was too busy tending to her big brothers wounds.

Suddenly, a white blur shot out of the trees, and charged right for Coco! Coco yelped and flinched to brace herself for the immense pain she was certain she would experience. She heard a thud, but she felt no pain. She slowly opened her eyes and looked forward. Tails was standing in front of her, on wobbly legs, clutching his stomach in pain. Carbon was just standing, watching, blood on his punching hand. Tails fell to his knees. "T-Tails…" Coco gasped. She supported him when he fell. Carbon was just watching, no emotion in his eyes. Coco looked up at him. "W-Why Carbon…" She gulped. "It is my destiny to destroy all bandicoots…and an interfering fox won't stop me." Carbon growled. Tails struggled up to of foot. "I-If…you…have...a problem…with them…you'll have to go through me first!!" Tails shouted. "Tails…" Coco blinked, amazed at Tails's will to continue. Carbon just stared like an inanimate object. He suddenly struck with blazing speed. He swatted Tails aside like he was a fly or something.

Back at Sonic's house, Sonic was busy writing up the plans for the wormhole, when there was a thump in the closet. Sonic turned around to look at it. There was another thump. Sonic tusked, and walked over to the cupboard. He opened the door and kicked something with force. "If you don't shut the hell up I will beat you black and blue." Sonic threatened. He slammed the door. He then thought for a while. He opened the door again. "On second thoughts, I'll only beat you black. You're blue enough all ready. HAH!" Sonic laughed.

"Carbon! Stop!!" Coco shouted. "You will not stop my destiny!" Carbon growled. "W-Who said this was destiny?!" Coco gulped. "That is not your concern!" Carbon was closing in on Coco. Tails suddenly smashed into Carbon's ribs with a tail-propelled kick. Carbon was thrown off his feet for maybe the first time that night. Tails landed on his feet, trying to keep balance. Carbon jumped to his feet. "Hmm... you're stronger than I thought…" Carbon sneered. He stooped low to the ground. "But can you match me in speed?" He asked. Tails smiled through the pain in his stomach. "Speed?.." he started to laugh slightly. Carbon raised an eyebrow. "What's so funny?" He grunted. "When it comes to speed…only two people in the world can match me." He smiled. "Shut your trap!" Carbon shouted. He was so fast; it looked like he'd de-materialized into thin air. (DBZ Style ^^) He made a strike at Tails. He wasn't there. Carbon looked around. He was too late, Tails was already behind him. Tails landed a sharp kick to his ribs. Carbon staggered backwards. "How the fu-" He gasped. He couldn't finish before another sharp kick to the front of the face. Tails had sped round to the front of him without his knowing of it. Some blood was dripping from his nose.

"I'm going…..to kill…you now!" Carbon yelled. Tails didn't see the next shot coming. A hard right hand almost destroyed the right side of his face. Tails hit the floor hard, which is pretty hard to do on sand, but that was the power of Carbon Crash. The sand around his head was turning red. Carbon smiled, and turned his attention towards Coco. "There's no-one to save you now..." He smiled. "..! I…I'm not finished yet!!" Tails shouted. He struggled to his knees. Carbon looked around. "Seriously…here's the painful truth pipsqueak. You're beaten and broken, and there is no way, you can beat me!" Carbon growled. Tails's determination distracted Carbon long enough. A shadowy figure crept up behind him. A metallic glint was visible in the moon light. Crunch swung his fist at Carbon. Carbon turned his head in shock. He wasn't quick enough. Crunch's heavy iron fist almost shattered Carbon's skull. Carbon crashed to the floor. 'N-No…I can't…this is impossible…th-that pipsqueak weakened me enough…this is embarrassing…' Carbon thought. He looked at some sort of device on his wrist. 'I have….no choice…master will kill me…' he thought. He dragged his arm round and hit the device. His body vanished into a blue light. "What...?" Crunch blinked. "A…A teleportation...device…sneaky…" Tails panted. Tails staggered, and suddenly blacked out. "Tails!" Coco gasped, running over to him and catching him as he fell to the ground. Tails's heart and determination may of been his downfall.

*-The Next Day-*

Crash had woken up with a bandage round his head. He couldn't remember any of the battle against Carbon, but could still remember Carbon being there. Crash sat up in his bed, his head still spinning. "Morning Crash." Crunch said. "How are you feeling?" he asked. "Well…groggy…" Crash replied. "What happened to Carbon?"

"Tails and I managed to fend him off. But Tails has even worse injuries than yours..." Crunch responded. "What…? Where is he?" Crash gasped. "He's in the Main Room. He's unconscious for now. He should wake up later today…I hope…"


	8. Tornado III's Magic

Tornado III's Magic

Tails was just barely breathing at a steady rate, but he was okay. Coco was sitting beside him, and had been for quite some time. Tails had bandages pretty much all round his head, also around his ribs, due to the devastating opening blow. Small red stains were still barely visible on his face, but Coco was cleaning these up. "…" She was unusually silent. Her face was a bit pale. She probably never saw anything like what she saw. Crash came in after a while. "Coco..." he said calmly, not wanting to spook his younger sister. Coco looked round. "Crash!" She smiled, jumping up from the floor and hugging him. "I'm glad you're okay…" she smiled. "But…what about Tails?..." Crash asked. Coco looked back at Tails. "I…I don't know if he'll be ok..he's been unconscious for about 2 hours now…" she said. "Has he even moved?" Crash asked. Coco shook her head sadly. "……" Crash fell silent. He walked over to the window and looked at the sky. In the distance, he could see a faint image of a blimp with an N on it. "I'll…I'll never forgive you for this….Carbon.." he whispered to himself. Coco went back over to Tails. Crash continued to stare at the Blimp in the distance.

"I'm surprised Carbon…" Cortex tusked, as Carbon sat on a table behind him, his injuries being patched up mechanically. "It…wasn't my fault…you should know better than anyone that the fox is tougher than he seems!" Carbon growled. "Sh-Shut up…" Cortex groaned. Tiny was in the corner watching a small TV, still with his injuries from his encounter with Tails, which had ended up as a criss-cross plaster on his nose. Cortex looked over at him. "I don't like to admit it, but he is something out of the ordinary, he took out me, Tiny, and even you Carbon…" Cortex said. "Heavy Fire power is needed…Carbon, get …" He grinned. Carbon nodded. Tiny seemed to know what they were going to do. He raised his finger in objection, but then his favorite TV show came on and he lost interest.

After a 3rd hour, Tails began to stir. "Huh…T-Tails?" Coco said hopefully, her face lighting up. "uhh…C-Coco? Y-You're….okay?" he asked. Coco nodded. "Definitely now…" she smiled. Tails managed to show the faintest of smiles. "How's Crash?" He asked. "He's fine, but he hasn't been the same since he woke up. He really wants revenge on Carbon." Coco said, with a hint of worry in her voice, looking over at Crash, who was in the next room, still staring daggers at Cortex's blimp. "Who is Carbon anyway? It sounded like you already knew him in great detail…"

"Well, it's a long story…"

"I've got time" Tails said, sitting up.

Coco sighed. "Carbon was the result of one of my failed experiments. It was a project that would hope to duplicate Crash's strength and speed. It went tragically wrong, the machine I was using kinda…you know…discombobulated…'

'Me and crash thought that was it, my experiment failed, until something came from the rubble of the explosion. He looked exactly like Crash, just pure white. He looked roughed up, so we looked after him. I did some blood tests on him, finding a substance called Carbonitrate flowing through his veins. Because of this fact, we named him Carbon, which he seemed to agree with. A few days later, Cortex put his next plan into action, in our history books we call it 'Plan Titans'. The plan kidnapped me. Carbon, wanting to repay me for saving him from the wreckage of my machine, joined Crash in the latest adventure. He proved to be a strong ally to Crash, being like a mirror image.'

'Then Plan Mind came into action the next year. The plan brainwashed me and Crunch. Carbon also got mixed up in it. After the adventure, we thought everything had gone back to normal. But something weird happened with Carbon. It seemed his Brainwashed effects never came off. He _wanted_ to literally tear Crash's head off! Crash ended up with injuries similar to the ones he had earlier. We never saw him again after that…" Coco explained the whole story. She half expected Tails to fall asleep with Boredom, and was pleasantly surprised to see that he didn't.

"Maybe the Brain washing device reacts with Carbonitrate, the brainwashing must have erased his memories when it came off of his head. Then the Carbonitrate returned his memory to the most recent one, the one where he was evil…" Tails said. Coco was intrigued by this. "I…I never thought of that…" She blinked. "But listening to you…that makes perfect sense!" She said. She felt a sudden emptiness. "If…If I had remembered that…th-this would of never of happened." She whispered. She sat down beside Tails. "This whole thing is my fault…" "What?...How is this your fault?..." Tails became utterly confused. "I…I could of stopped Carbon, all that time ago…" Coco said. "I had a machine that could do exactly the same…just for good….I could used that and the Carbonitrate too my advantage...I could have done that all that time ago.." She put her head in her hands. "All this could've of been averted…" she whispered. "Coco…You don't have to feel sad about one thing you forgot. I have too many scars to count because of my failed inventions." Tails said. Coco blinked with surprise, and looked up. "Really?" Tails nodded. "Even I don't know everything there is to know, and even if I did, it can't be expected to remember every little detail of them all." Tails explained. Coco started to smile and nod. "I see…thanks…" She smiled. "Anyway, should we put the finishing touches on the Tornado?" Tails said. Coco nodded. "Let's do it!" she smirked.

Sonic walked past the main room, where Amy saw him. "…Sonic's been acting really strange recently…" She said. "Well, Tails's death isn't something you just shake off Amy," Knuckles said, who was chilling by a fire. "I think we all have been acting differently since then." He sighed. "I don't think that's what she means Knuckles." A voice said from the rafters. The guardian of the Master Emerald looked up. "Shadow? How'd you get in here?!" Knuckles snarled. "Calm down Knuckles…" Amy said softly. "As I was saying, Amy is right. Sonic has been acting out of the ordinary recently. And it's not the kind of behavior someone would take up in mourning of a close friend. I may not of known Tails for very long, but I know that he and Sonic were close 'buddies' as Sonic used to say." Shadow continued. Knuckles thought for a while. "Yeeaah….right…" He said. "Knuckles!" Amy growled. Shadow just watched from the rafters. "Come on Amy," Knuckles whispered. "You know the history we've had with Shadow. He's the last person we can trust." "But he's right! Sonic has been acting strange…like he's got something to hide…." Amy responded quickly. The two looked up to the rafters. Shadow was gone.

The Tornado 3 was almost finished! the color scheme looked like a Mix of the original Tornado's radiant red and the X Tornado's blazing yellow, giving it a fire like look. While Tails was inside making sure the radar etc. were up to scratch, Coco, Crash, Crunch, and even Polar and Pura were either painting it or fitting different gizmos into the wings. As Coco fit the rocket launcher into the left wing, something stung her as she realized it. If the Tornado was finished, Tails would be able to finally go home. He would leave Wumpa Island, maybe forever. She didn't know why, but she felt sad about this fact. Suddenly, there was a small tremor that lasted for about 0.5 seconds. Everyone stopped. Tails poked his head out of the window. "Did you guys hear that? Or was that just me?" He asked. Coco nodded. "It doesn't sound good, be on your guard guys." There was another small tremor, but louder, and slightly more violent. There many to come, getting faster and faster. "Something's coming…" Crash whispered. He sneaked out into the main room. Still hidden, he peeked outside of the window. A mechanical eye stared right back. "Shit!!" He shouted. A laser tore through the house. "Is that who I think it is?!" Crunch shouted over the noise of the laser. "Yes it f*ckin' is!!" Crash yelled.

A rocket blasted through the main room. The whole place shook. "Grr..its that Cortex guy isn't it…" Tails said angrily. "He just doesn't quit." Coco shouted. Tails flew up to the window. He saw a giant Mechanical bandicoot. One of its arms was a chainsaw, the other a rocket launcher. 'Have to give him credit, he makes good machines.' Tails thought. The side that had the rocket launcher switched to a hand. It reared back and propelled forward into the house. Tails was knocked off his perch. He spun his tails to stop him crashing to the floor. It would've been fatal if he had. He ran into the main room, where Mecha Bandicoot's giant hand was trying to find someone to crush. Tails acted fast. Almost like a buzz saw, his tails sliced though his hand. An ear piercing screech emitted from Mecha Bandicoot. Tails recoiled from the volume. "Ack! That never happened last time" Crash yelled. "Last time?! You mean you've already fought him?!" Tails asked. "Yes! He usually fires green energy balls! DUCK!!!" He shouted. The Chainsaw ripped through the ceiling. Everyone only just dodged it. Crash looked up at Mecha Bandicoot. His heart sank. There was no cannon nozzle on Mecha's nose. "S-Shit…" he gasped. "What is it?" Tails asked. "There will be no energy balls!! DAMMIT!!!" Crash yelled. Tails looked up at Mecha Bandicoot. "I've got an idea….it's risky but worth it! Keep him distracted!!" Tails said. He dashed off somewhere, grabbing the chaos emeralds as he went. Crash exchanged glances with Crunch. "Come on then! He knows what he's doing!" Coco called out from the other side of the room. "R-Right!" Crash nodded.

Tails ran into the workshop. 'Come on Tornado III...' He thought as he placed the Emeralds into the power supply unit. '…work you magic!'

The machine started to buzz, and everything in the cockpit began to light up….

Back outside, the blazing sun reflected off Mecha Bandicoot's, making him seem more menacing. Crash was trying his best to keep him occupied, as was Coco and Crunch. Mecha roared, and slammed its chainsaw down. It suddenly switched to a fist, and it charged for them. Crash and Coco rolled out of the way. The fist stopped, and made a sudden backhand! It caught Coco and sent her flying. "Coco!!!" Crash yelled. The fist smashed down on Crash, dishing out extra damage due to his injuries.. Mecha Bandicoot started to close in on Coco. In the cockpit of Mecha Bandicoot, Carbon was watching, along with the pilot, . "There's no escape now Coco. Your precious little Tails isn't here now!" Carbon smiled. Mecha Bandicoot grabbed Coco in its giant metallic arms. Coco was helpless in the 10ft behemoth's clutches. 'T-Tails….where are you…' she thought helplessly. There was a sudden flash of red and yellow. Mecha's hand fizzed, and then fell off. The same red and yellow flash caught Coco as she fell. Coco looked around. "This…" she mumbled. "Coco? You okay?" Tails smiled from the controls at the front of the Tornado III. Coco spun around. "Tails!" Coco's face instantly lit up. She rushed over to the control, and without thinking, hugged Tails. This caused Tails to suddenly go crimson red. Coco suddenly realized what she was doing, and quickly backed off. "S-Sorry…" She gulped, turning bright red. "I-Its fine." Tails laughed sheepishly. Coco blushed and smiled back. "Now…are we ready to bring this overgrown scrap metal down?" Tails smirked. "You bet!" Coco nodded, going back to her tough-as-nails attitude.

In the cockpit of Mecha Bandicoot, was freaking out. Carbon couldn't believe his eyes. "That fox can…" he blinked. There was suddenly a phone call on the control screen. It was from Tiny. Carbon twitched with fury, then pressed 'Accept'. "What is it Tiny!?!" he snarled. "Tiny be meaning to tell you something before fighting Fox!" Tiny chanted. "Its that he has similar knowledge as Coco…right?" Carbon sighed. There was a long silence on the line, then finally…"Tiny screw up didn't he?" "Yes Tiny…You screwed up…or to be more precise, Fucked up big time…" Carbon facepalmed. was still freaking out. "Move brainiac, lat me handle this." Carbon shoved out of his chair and took control of the 10ft behemoth.

Tails steered the Tornado, while Coco armed the Tornado's several weapon's. "Ready?" "Ready!!" Tails and Coco exchanged nods. Tails also had the generic green laser blasts at his disposable. Coco, had all the fancy stuff. Lasers and rockets flew at Mecha Bandicoot like speeding bullets. Mecha Bandicoot had sustained serious damage by now. Carbon refused to give up. He would not be humiliated by Tails again! The Chainsaw rapidly slashed at the Tornado, but Tails's expert piloting skills, each missed completely. Back on the ground, Crash pulled himself out of the hole he was smashed into by Mecha's fist. He looked up at the sky. A wide grin spread across the Hyper-active Island hopper's face. "G-Go Get him guys.." he smiled.

Carbon looked forward, watching everything that happened.. He rose from his seat. "Wha? Where are you going?" stuttered. Carbon looked back at him. "Home." He simply said. He hit the same wristband he used with his first encounter with Tails, and warped back to base. "Wait!! What about me?!?" wailed.

"Preparing for final strike!" Tails called out to Coco. "Lets do it!" Coco called back. Tails held a button on the control panel. The laser cannons at the front of the plane lit up in a green glow. "Fire!" The cannons released one long devastating laser that ripped through Mecha's body. Mecha wobbled, then collapsed in the sea, making a Tidal wave.

"We did it!" Tails smiled. "Wahoo!" Coco cheered.

Crash smiled upwards at the Kitsune and his sister. "Game Over Cortex…" He said to himself.

Tornado III rolled to a stop in front of Crash. Tails and Coco hopped out. "That..was awesome guys." Crash smiled. Coco looked at the havoc that Mecha Bandicoot had caused during his attack. "Oh no…look at our house…its ruined." She said sadly. "It'll take forever to get it back to normal." "Well…Aku Aku can fix it, but then we can't go in there for that period of time." Crash said. Tails thought for a while, then a smile came to his face. "I have an idea. If you get this Aku Aku guy to start to clear this place up, then I can really repay you for helping me with the Plane crash…" he said. Crash looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"You'll see…"


	9. Coming Home

Coming Home 

The group traveled through the Wumpa Island jungle. Tails was fascinated by the different types of fruit in the jungle. When he asked about them, the bandicoots answered his questions without fail. He learned about the Wumpa Fruit, the Mojo Plant, and the exotic Piranha Plant. The Piranha Plant was a little feisty. It snapped at Tails a few times, but he wasn't bothered. He'd fought 10ft mechanical Bandicoots for crying out loud! A Plant wasn't about to bother him. They came to a clearing. "Ah…This place." Coco said. It didn't seem so special to Tails. He saw something on the ground. It was a small screw. He picked it up. "Hey, this is a screw from Tornado II. This is the placed I crashed isn't it?" He smiled. "Yep, this is the place." Coco nodded. Tails laughed. "Cool." He saw a giant crevice in the ground. "I'm guessing that's where I landed." "Two in a row! You're on a role, despite the fact you where knocked out."

"Carbon!!!" Cortex shouted as loud as his voice could go. Carbon slumped into the room. "Yeah?" He sighed, disgruntled. "You have in three words to describe what you did out there!" Cortex growled. Carbon thought for a while. "We….were…failing. That's all I can say. Tails happens to be a mechanical genius. A small detail that Tiny didn't fill us in with." Carbon sighed. "You don't have to wait until somebody else tells you!! You can find out for yourself!!" Cortex bellowed. "It doesn't change the fact you deserted on the field of Battle!" That last shout sprayed spit in Carbon's face. Carbon was silent for a long while. Tiny, Koala Kong, Ripper Roo, and everybody else there leaned in to see Carbon's next action. Nobody expected his next move. He stared at Cortex with malicious eyes, then connected with an ear shattering slap to the Academy of Evil graduate's face. The attack left a bright red mark on Cortex's face. "I don't need you. I don't need any of you simpletons!" Carbon shouted. "I can survive on my own!" He ripped the wrist band off of his wrist, and smashed it on Cortex's thick skull. He walked out of the room. A sound of a ship launching away. Everyone stared in shock. "D-Dammit.." Cortex groaned, blood slightly dripping from his forehead.

The Group soon came to a large temple. Tails instantly recognized this temple. 'Hey, this is the place that overgrown Tiger attacked Coco in.' he thought. 'He's probably not here again.' he shrugged it off. Inside the temple, Tails could now see different statues and ornaments in the sunlight. All of it looked quite ancient. "When was this stuff made?" He asked. "Heh, we brought this stuff back from when Cortex tried to use a time traveler to get ancient crystals from the different time eras. These things come from places like the Medieval period to the Coliseum in Ancient Rome." Crash explained. Tails stopped by a very furturistic wall ornament. "….Apart from that one, that came from the distant future." Crash laughed. Tails nodded, in slight confusion. They went up to a large carving of a mystical mask. "Aku Aku? We need you're help." Coco called out. The carving on the wall lit up a baby blue color. 'This happened last time…only it went red.' Tails thought. There was a flash, but not a blinding one. The Carving gained color, it was quite a spectacular sight to behold. Finally, the carving blinked, and came out of the wall. "Coco, Crash, Crunch. It's good to see you again." Aku Aku said whimsically. He saw Tails, and floated in front of his face. "Who's this?" he asked. "This is Tails. He crash landed here about 5 days ago. He's got pretty much the same knowledge as Coco. He also helped us fend off Cortex's underlings a few times. Even Carbon!" Crash replied. Aku Aku nodded. "…even Carbon…" He smiled. "Umm..Hi?." Tails smiled, feeling a bit awkward with a Magical Mask in his face. Aku Aku slew back up to the front, with a smile on his face. 'A Kitsune with the strength that can defeat Carbon…he could be the one.' he thought. "Anyway children, what requires my services?" He asked. "Well, long story, Mecha Bandicoot paid a little visit. Our house is kinda wrecked." Coco explained. "I see. You want me to fix it with the power of Mojo." Aku Aku said reasonably. Crash, Coco and Crunch nodded. "Okay, very well. But the question is, where are you going to go while I do my work?" Aku Aku asked. "Tails has an idea, but he's going to say when we've got started on our house." Crunch said. While Crash and Crunch talked to Aku Aku about the situation, Coco sidled up beside Tails. "Hey Tails? What is your idea?" She asked. A grin came to Tails's face. "It's a secret, I tell you later." He said. "Can you tell me? Please?" Coco smiled, inching a bit closer to him. Tails was stunned for a while. Her eyes seemed to reflect in the sunlight. How could he say no? "Well, okay.." he said sheepishly, just like the time when Coco hugged him. He whispered in Coco's ear. Coco's eyes lit up. "Really?" "Yes, Really." All of them started to go back to the house. Aku Aku floated down by Crash. "About the Mecha Bandicoot battle, did Tails…?" He asked. Crash nodded. "Yep." Aku Aku smiled. 'He's definitely the one.

Carbon landed in a jungle on another island. He looked around. Nothing seemed to out of the ordinary. He walked through the darkness. He didn't know he was being watched. Carbon observed the wild life. It was very different to that of Wumpa Island. There were normal birds, normal flowers. Everything was too….nice. It made Carbon feel…relaxed. After being under the command of Cortex for so long, it felt good to be able to do something without having another task at hand. A sudden ripple of pain pierced his head. He grabbed it, because it felt like it would fly off into space. The pain eventually went. Carbon felt different. He no longer had the malicious feel about him. He looked around. The forest didn't seem so dark anymore. 'What happened there?' he thought to himself. He rubbed the side of his head slightly. It stung. There was sound of running footsteps and slight shouting. "Help! Someone!" It was the voice of a female. Someone ran past. Carbon caught Amy's eyes. Amy looked quickly around. "Help me.." She whispered. She had a small shiny stone clutched to her chest. It looked like a jewel to Carbon, but it looked more like an emerald. Carbon hesitated, then nodded. Amy ran behind Carbon. Suddenly, with a loud barrage of noises, a whole army of Robots burst their way into Carbon's sight. They saw the emerald in Amy's hands. "MOVE ASIDE! WE HAVE BUISNESS TO ATTEND TO" One of the robots ordered, in its creaky robotic voice. Carbon just stared it in the eye and simply said… "No." He extended a hand forward. It immediately became clouded in pure white energy. His green-black tattoos "Seeya." he said. A giant shock wave of white energy ripped part all 20 robots. Amy was completely stunned by the attack. There was a flash, and the shock wave vanished. Screws, Bolts and other mechanical parts rattled to the ground. Carbon shook his hand like he had just punched something hard. "I really need to get over that.." he said to himself. Amy stepped forward a bit. "Who….Who are you?" she asked, a bit scared. Carbon turned his head. "My name is Carbon, Carbon Bandicoot……."

Aku Aku observed the damage to the Bandicoot house. "I see…it's a lot worse than last time. This is going to take a while." he said. "Hmm…I hope this idea of yours is a good one Tails." Crash groaned. Coco smiled. "It is Crash. It definitely is." Coco nodded with a smile. Tails nodded. "You mean he's already told you?!" Crash choked in surprise. "Sorry Crash…" Tails said guiltily. "I'll let you off for fighting Mecha Bandicoot earlier." Crash laughed. Tails nodded. Aku Aku floated around the house. It was surrounded in a blue bubble. "Ok, the rebuilding is in progress." Aku Aku said. "I bid you farewell." Aku Aku vanished in a sea blue and a tree green light. "Okay. That's settled. Our house is under repair. What's this idea then Tails?"

"Well, I've wanted to thank you for helping me after I crashed on this island for a while now. You guys accepted me into your lives. I know I already helped against Carbon and Mecha and other people. After saying what happened to me, I know you want to have a word or ten with Sonic. So, guys, I invite you to stay with me and my friends, in the place we call Mobius." Tails smiled.

Crash and Crunch exchanged looks. They both smiled. "No where else to go. And its sounds good to me!" Crash nodded. "Where do we go?" A smile came to Tails and Coco's faces. "In the Tornado." Tails smiled.

Amywas found walking just outside the house. "Amy!" Cream ran to greet her. "You were gone for ages! What happened?" She asked. "I ran into some trouble. But I found a chaos emerald!" Amy smiled shakily. "What trouble was it?" Knuckles asked. "Robots…lots of them…20 at least." "20?!?" Knuckles stated. "H-How did you fend all of them off?" Cream asked, confused. "There was someone…a Bandicoot…he was pure white, green tattoos….he saved me." Amy said, mystified, remembering what Carbon did. "What was his name?" Cream said. "Carbon…Carbon Bandicoot." Amy smiled. Cream nodded. Knuckles looked up at the sky, which was starting to become night. The stars sparkled light everywhere. "Huh?!?" he blinked. "What is it?" Amy asked. "Up there!" Knuckles pointed to the sky. There was a red and yellow dot in the sky. Crasm and Amy looked at it. "Wait…is that??" "It can't be!" "No way!" The red and yellow shape got closer. "Oh my god!!" The Tornado pulled up in front of them. The hatch opened, and Tails jumped out. "Hey guys! Did ya miss me?" He smirked.


	10. Didn't Count on my Return

Didn't Count on my Return

The whole thing took about 10 minutes. Everybody ran outside, absolutely amazed about Tails still being alive and well. Everyone was there, except Sonic…The look on everyone's face was heartwarming to see for Tails. He was first bombarded by hugs from Cream, Amy and even Cheese. He felt special, knowing everyone had missed him so much. He noted the fact that Sonic wasn't here. He knew it wasn't right. First the betrayal at 1000ft, then not turning up for his arrival. Coco watched from the Tornado, smiling. His friends really seemed to miss him. It reminded her of the time she was brainwashed by . Crash really missed her then. Tails hadn't forgotten about the Bandicoots. He tried to get everybody's attention. "O-Okay guys. Thanks for the warm welcome back. But seriously, I would of never of been able to get back, without these guys." He smiled. Crash smiled. All of the Bandicoots got out of the Tornado. As soon as Amy saw Crash she had a flashback to Carbon. 'Wah?...Carbon?' she thought. "So..You are the guys that saved Tails?" Knuckles smiled. "Yep, name's Crash". Crash smiled. "I'm Crunch." Crunch chipped in. "What about you miss?" Cream asked Coco in her cute high pitched. "I'm Coco, what's your name?" Coco smiled. "Cream. And this is Cheese." "Chao Chao!" Cheese chanted happily.

Carbon was still in the same forest. He had started set up a camp for him to stay the night. The pink hedgehog girl he had met earlier that day was still on his mind. Who was she? What was her name? All of these questions flooded Carbon's head. The biggest question of all was, what was her first impression of me? As soon as he told her his name, she was silent, and then ran off into the forest. 'I'm never going to get any sleep with these thoughts. Just forget the girl Carbon. Forget her..' he thought to himself. "Well, it seems we have a lot in common." A voice said from somewhere. Carbon swiftly turned around to see a Black and Red hedgehog, just standing there with his arms crossed, with a slight smirk on his face. "Who the hell are you?" Carbon snarled. "My name is Shadow." Shadow said. "You have certain details about that compare to my own." Carbon just stared him in the eye. "What are you talking about?.." "You're not the…._original_ version are you." Shadow said, almost mockingly. Carbon was staring daggers at him. "You….How...do you know?" "I can tell…just by looking at you. There is another, that looks exactly like you…" "Dammit…" Carbon growled under his breath. "Dammit YOU DON'T KNOW ME!!" he shouted, as he charged forward through anger.

The night sky glistened upon the ocean. At the shore, two figures lay, exhausted and tired. Rouge gasped for breath, slightly bleeding. Eggman almost choked on water. The two had been in Eggman's ship, when it was gunned down by a mysterious blimp. "E-Eggs?" Rouge choked. "I'm fine…I've had worse." Eggman said. Rouge looked at the night sky. "It's been like a week or something. All we've lived on are the previsions you had in your ship." "Yes…but who shot us down?...That's the question…" Eggman nodded. Rouge suddenly realized something. "Crap! So-Sonics going to be wondering where I went!" she gasped. Eggman went wide eyed. "You're working for Sonic?!" "You don't understand! He has a gun and everything!..." Eggman went quiet for a while. "Rouge…what I'm about to say is quite huge….I promise that I will not attack any corner of the globe, until I find out what makes Sonic tick nowadays…."

Amy ran to Sonic's room and rapped on the door. "Sonic!! It's Tails! He's alive!!" She cheered. There was no answer from the cold metallic door. "Sonic?" She called out, rapping on the door harder. Still no answer. '…that's odd…Sonic was the one who seemed the most destroyed inside about Tails' death…I would've imagined that he would of come running…' She thought. She made her way to the main room, where not only everyone celebrating Tails' unexpected return, but were also getting to know The Bandicoots. Much to Knuckles' surprise, Crunch seemed to rival him in strength. Luckily, he couldn't match him in speed. Crash seemed an all round type of person in ability. Everyone seemed to enjoy his laid back attitude. "So what's Wumpa Island like?" Cream asked. "Oh you would love it! The beach is pretty much everywhere you look!" Crash smiled cheerily. "The sea looks great from any time of day!" Tails chipped in. "At night, the moon just bounces off the water, during the day, the sun spreads out across it." "Chao Chao!!" Cheese cheered. He wanted to go. "Calm down Cheese, I'm sure we would be able to come some time." Cream smiled. Cheese floated around Crash's head, and landed on his shoulder. "Chao!"

Amy's thoughts were still clouded with questions about Crash. 'Why does Crash look exactly Carbon…do they know each other?...Are they related in any way?...I'm not going to get any answers just standing here..' She walked into the room and sat next to Crash. "Hey…Crash is it?" She asked. Crash looked at her. "Yeah, that's me." "Can...Can I ask you something? I'm not sure if it's personal or not.." "Fire away." Crash nodded. "Do you…Do you know someone called…Carbon?" she asked. Crash's smile slowly faded. "Carbon…yes, I do know someone called Carbon…" "You do?" "Yes…unfortunately."

Sonic was standing outside in the dark. He was watching through the window. "……" he was silent. He watched as Tails was laughing and enjoying himself. He saw everyone around him, happy. It made him sick. 'I didn't count on his return… I'm going to have to do this the less silent way….' he thought. He started to walk off in to the darkness. Evil intent filled his eyes.

Carbon lay on the floor, breathing heavily, bleeding. Shadow walked away. "Next time you try picking a fight, try not to pick one with someone who is better than you in every possible way…" Shadow jeered, before walking off back to the house. "Y-You…" Carbon gasped. Pain was overflowing his body. He was trying to keep himself from passing out. 'I'll….get him…back one day..' he choked. A thought hit him. Could that guy if been someone sent by Cortex? He grabbed a nearby branch to pull himself into a sitting position. The blood was flowing more freely now. Carbon lightly put his hand on his sea green tattoo on his right arm. It started to glow more like sea blue now. A quick sharp shock flowed through. "Nng!!" he grunted in surprise. A sea blue glow covered his body, his wounds began to close. The blue glow vanished, and Carbon lost consciousness.


	11. Brutality

Brutality 

Everybody was quite into the middle of the conversation, when Knuckles suddenly spoke up. "Hey guys. I was just thinking, what kind of welcome is this! We need an actual celebration. Like a birthday, but just a welcome back party." he said. Everybody looked at each other. Everyone seemed to agree. Knuckles felt fuzzy. It wasn't often his ideas were taken into consideration. "Yeah, sounds good!" "We could have it as a joint Welcome party for the Bandicoots!" Cream smiled politely. "Oh you don't have to.." Coco laughed. "I think it's polite." Cream nodded. "Well Knuckles, since you thought of the idea of it, you can organize it!" Amy smirked. "Ok…Wait, what?!?" Knuckles blurted out of surprise. "I..I meant…oh alright...but you have to help too." Everyone nodded. "It'll probably be sometime tomorrow. It's getting quite late now." Knuckles said. "In the meantime, where are the Bandicoots going to stay?" "I think there's a spare room somewhere." Tails said. He suddenly remembered who used that room before. '…Cosmo...' he thought, falling silent. Coco noticed this almost immediately. "Tails?..." she said quietly, just so no-one could hear them, but they were to busy talking about the room. "Are you okay?.." She asked. "I'm fine.." He nodded slowly. "Are you sure?" "Yes, I'm sure."

Later, Tails showed the Bandicoots the room they could stay in. He seemed a little reluctant though. Coco could see something was most definitely wrong with Tails. He could see it in his sea blue eyes. Crash walked into the room and looked around. "Hmm…you have a lot of space in this house don't you?" he smiled. "Yes…Yes we do.." Tails said sheepishly. "We have 2 more rooms if you want separate ones." The bandicoots nodded at this. "Okay, Coco do you want this one?" Crash said. "Okay, sure." Coco nodded. "The other rooms are nearby." Tails pointed them out. Crash and Crunch nodded. The four of them went to check them out. Both had very large space as well. As Crunch and Crash decided which of them would have which, Coco saw an opportunity to speak with Tails. She walked up beside him. "Tails? What's wrong? Please tell me…" She said calmly. Tails looked at her. "I-it's fine…It's something that happened about a year ago now.." he sighed. "But you still seem bothered by it...even after a year…it must be quite serious…" Tails shook his head at Coco's reply. "N-no…j-just no…I don't want to remember it…" he whispered, a faint image of a tear in his eye. Coco was taken aback. "S-Sorry…" she gulped. "It's fine. It was just a scary moment for me." Tails said. Coco nodded quietly.

As the moonlight glistened, Carbon was starting to come back to his senses. "guhh…" he choked. He blinked awake and looked around. "That…Shadow guy…" he pondered out loud. He heaved his body off of the ground, looking at his body for any injuries. He found none. Focusing his mind on who Shadow was, he judged by his name that he would be lurking in the shadows of the forest somewhere. He needed to find him and get some answers, like where he was, and how Shadow knew he was a literal Carbon Copy of Crash. Carbon went to work, searching around the shadows of the forest. "Come on Shadow…where are you…I need answers!!" He called out. There was a slight rustle in the bushes behind him. Carbon turned around with such swiftness, that some of the leaves on the ground blew into the opposite direction. Everything was quiet. Too quiet. Carbon could feel the cold wind blowing against his snow white fur. He clenched his fists. Something was here…something or someone…whatever it was, it was something very large. A set of trees suddenly made a giant rustling noise, and the 8 foot Tiny Tiger leapt out at him with ferocious intent. "Crap!" Carbon quickly rolled out of harms way, and locked eyes with his former team mate. Tiny narrowed his eyes at Carbon, bearing his razor teeth.

Coco was around her newly appointed room, sorting things out, and positioning stuff to her liking. She had brought a few of he favorite ornaments along with her from Wumpa Island. She pulled back the curtains. What she saw surprised her. There was a small potted plant. It looked well watered, but hadn't grown much. Coco seemed to stare at it for a moment, as if studying its properties. She could see just by looking at it that it wasn't any ordinary plant. She felt that Tails knew what it was about. The she had a sudden thought. 'Maybe this is connected to why Tails was sad earlier…I can feel this plant has a presence inside it…' She wasn't sure whether she should ask Tails or not. "Hmm…" She thought about it for a long time. "Tails?" She called out. "Yeah?" Tails called back, appearing at Coco's door. "Is…Is this yours?" Coco asked. Tails looked at the plant. He sighed a little. "Yes...yes that is mine.." He nodded. "Tails…I know that you don't want to talk about it…but for…some reason…I don't want to see you like this…all depressed. Please tell me what's wrong.." Coco said calmly. "….okay…I can trust you…" Tails said. "The plant used to be a person…a girl to be precise…"

A tree cracked in half, and crashed to the ground below. Leaves flew in every direction, a lot falling on the battered body of Tiny. Tiny had never been seen so injured. Carbon stood over his body. "You haven't improved a bit Tiny. I suggest you pack your bags and hang up your boots." he laughed. There was a slow clapping behind him. Carbon turned around, to see Shadow, sitting on a low branch. He had apparently been watching the whole fight. "Well done, that was certainly an impressive victory." he smiled, his clapping coming to a close. "Ah…you…Shadow right…" Carbon nodded slowly. "I've been looking for you…I need answers from you." Shadow looked unimpressed. "What kind of answers?" "Answers on how you know about my unoriginality. How do you know I am not one of a kind?" Carbon growled, starting to lose his temper. "It's quite simple really. I can tell be cause I'm not the original either. It's like the saying takes one to know one." Carbon was stunned. "You're a clone to?" "I wouldn't say clone, there are a lot of differences between me and my other guy, but still…" Carbon nodded slightly. "So you can tell by looking, because you are yourself…" he said. Shadow nodded. "Carbon. Carbon Bandicoot." He suddenly said. "What?" Shadow asked. "My name. My name is Carbon." Carbon repeated. Shadow smiled and nodded. "That girl you were with earlier. Do you know who she is?" He asked. "…You mean the pink hedgehog girl?...No…I never got her name…do you know her?" Carbon asked. Shadow nodded. "Indeed I do. Her name is Amy. She's okay. It's better to get her on your good side." He said. Carbon smiled and nodded. "Okay. Thanks…Shadow." He said. Shadow nodded with a way of respect.

Crunch and Crash, along with Cream and Amy, were getting The Bandicoots things from the new Tornado. Amy was amazed at all the new gadgets. "Incredible! I never knew Tails could do this kind of science!" Amy smirked, trying out the transformation setting. The Tornado III suddenly retracted into a Spear Type looking body. "Tails didn't do all this by himself. I know it's hard to believe, but he and my sister Coco aren't that much different." Crash said. Amy looked out of the cockpit at Crash. "Really? In what way?" "You know, they pretty much have the same IQ." Amy blinked in slight surprise. Crash nodded, as if answering the question Amy never asked. "It's weird…their attitudes to life are similar as well…" he said thoughtfully. "You watch them when they're together, you'll see the way to get on with each other is uncanny." Amy smiled and nodded. "Uhh, Mister Crash?" Cream suddenly said. She had one of her ears against one of the bags. "Do your bags usually make animal noises?" she asked. Crash, confused, walked over to the bag and unzipped it. The contents brought a huge grin to his face. He reached into the bag with two hands. "What are you…" he smiled. He pulled out Polar from his bag! "…doing in there?" Crash laughed. Polar 'arfed' and licked Crash's face. "Is this your pet from home?" Cream giggled. "Yep, his name's Polar." Crash nodded. He looked into the bag again. "And it looks like he's not alone!" he laughed again, pulling out Pura. Pura, living up to his name, began purring wildly. "Can I hold him?" Cream asked. "Sure!" Crash nodded, handing Pura to Cream. Pura rubbed his neck against Cream, which Cream giggled at.

Knuckles was in the main hall. He was planning the main layout for Tails's homecoming party. He also needed to make sure that it was suitable for the Bandicoots as well. He had most of the food planned out. He was already drawing what would go where. Amy, Cream and Vanilla said that they would help out after they had helped the Bandicoots. As well as all that, he decided that the whole thing would also be connected to Christmas, due to the festive tradition being only a few days away. Knuckles had a few banners up, most referring to Tails. Suddenly the door open and close quickly. Before Knuckles had time to turn around, all of the lights in the hall went out, one by one. "Who's there?" He called out. His voices bounced off the walls of the now dark main hall. There was something walking around the room. Whatever it was it was picking stuff up off the tables, inspecting it for a while, then carelessly dropping it. "I must say, you've done a decent job at the moment." A voice said. "W-Who are you?!" Knuckles growled with a stutter. There was a silence. "I'm quite offended, I've been your 'friend' almost half your life. You should know me by now…Anyway…this celebration is for Tails…right?" The voice said again. Knuckles silently nodded. "I suggest you call it off now Red-Head…" "What!? Now Way! Tails is one of my friends and I'll be DAMNED if I'm calling off this party." Knuckles shouted. There was another Bone-Chilling Silence. 'Oh shit…' Knuckles thought. He felt a sharp metal pain against his forehead, and everything went black…blacker that is.

"And…And just like that she was gone…" Tails finished saying, of what was a long and upsetting story. "…one minute she was there…the next she was in a thousand pieces…all over the galaxy…" His head hung, there were obvious tears in his eyes. Coco, who was listening to his story all the way through, inched closer to him. "Tails…" She whispered. There was a sudden earth shattering shout of pain that reverberated all across the walls of the house. Tails's tears dried up with alarm. "Th-That was Knuckles!" Tails gasped. Both of them leapt up and ran to where the noise was coming from. A screech of surprised fear rung out. It sounded like Amy! Tail and Coco burst through the door. "Oh my god…" Tails choked. Kunckles was laying there, bleeding, his arm looking out of place, and laying in the remains of a table that had been smashed right down the middle. However had done this must of picked Knuckles up and forced him on the table so hard that it snapped in two. Crash, Amy, cream and Crunch were already there. The bandicoots were carefully trying to get the two table pieces out of the way. "What in high holy hell happened!?" Tails asked, crouching down by Knuckles, who was only barely conscious. "S-Somebody…Somebody att-acked me..I didn't even see who it was…" Knuckles stuttered. Coco was by Knuckles's arm trying to see which parts they needed to be careful of. After every groan of pain from Knuckles, Coco quickly apologized, and moved away from that area of the arm. Tails saw something near Knuckles's arm. It looked like a small letter, sealed with Knuckles's blood. He slowly picked it up. It said on the front…

'Miles'

Tails hated being called by his real name. This must come from somebody that despised him. He unsealed it and took a note out of it. What it said sent shivers down his spine. It said..

" Miles Prower "

Get out of my life and stay there

or you're next

" "


	12. Encounter: Sonic

Encounter: Sonic

A stretcher was brought out for Knuckles, who was completely destroyed by his mystery attacker. Cream was freaked out by the discovery that there was blood all over the place, on the tables and on the floor. Amy comforted her, leading her out of the room, while Crash and Crunch wheeled the stretcher out towards the hospital unit. Tails hadn't taken his sight off of the letter since he picked it up. Every word of it sent chills down his spine. He had figured out what was going on. "Why?" he whispered to himself. "Why is he doing this to me?" Coco quietly crouched beside him. She read the note, and was also spooked at the contents. "Who?..." She asked. She knew she wasn't going to get an answer. Tails slowly stood up. He shook his head. "No, he wouldn't…would he?" he said to himself. "Eh? Who?" Coco asked. "You've think you've met everyone Coco, you're wrong. There's still Sonic…."

Crash heard this from outside."Sonic…where have I heard that?...Oh right! That's the guy Tails was talking about back on the island!" Crash said to himself. 'I'd better find this Sonic, and quiz him for a bit..' Everyone was starting to get drowsy, and headed to their rooms to get some shut eye. Coco was in her new room, sitting on her bed, along with Pura, who she was pleasantly surprised to see. Pura was already asleep. She was thinking about the note Tails had had forced upon him. 'Tails must be having a living nightmare at the moment…' she thought. She also thought about his time on Wumpa Island. She smiled about how much he knew about technology. She remembered what Crash had said the first night they worked on the Tornado III. 'I knew it; you have a major soft spot for him…' Coco was starting to agree more and more with his statement with every passing second. Tails was lying down on his bed. He was trying to get to sleep, but to no avail. He still had the note in his hands. 'Or you're next…' That simple sentence was enough to send shivers down Tails' spine. Did that mean if he stayed he would end up like Knuckles? Tails tossed the note aside. He'd fractured his ribs, survived plane crashes from 1000ft, and had bled buckets. If this guy lived up to his promise, Tails would be more than willing to fight. He turned over in his bed. There was something on his bedside table, that didn't make him feel right. It was a picture of him and Sonic. Tails stared at the photo for a while. He sighed, and knocked the picture off of its stand. He turned out the light and went to sleep.

Midnight was fast approaching. Everyone was asleep, with one exception. Crash was finishing off tying his wrist-tape like gloves onto his hands. He was going to find Sonic this very night. If he was the friend that Tails used to say was, then why didn't he show up today? That was one of the very many questions he had. Polar was lying on Crash's bed, watching him get ready. Crash cracked his knuckles. He was ready. He went outside his door, keeping to the shadows. Tails' home was a nice place. It was very big, so he could see why lots of people lived here. He heard someone coming. He froze, keeping way out of sight. The main door opened, the self proclaimed Fastest Thing Alive walked in. Along with him, was a scared Rouge. "L-Listen Sonic. Some blimp blew up the ship. I-I swear I was there to find emeralds." "Shut your yap Rouge." Sonic grumbled. Sonic had picked the best time to come back to the house. Seeing no one around he made his way to his room door, tugging Rouge along with him. Crash walked forwards, still in the shadows, but just enough for Sonic to hear his footsteps. Sonic heard his steps and spun around. "Someone's here.." He turned to Rouge. "You! Get out there and find out who's there." He whispered angrily. He shoved Rouge into the shadows. Rouge stumbled, and ran into Crash. Crash quickly silenced her, with a finger to her lips. "Well. You're a big man aren't you? Hiding behind a girl and all..." Crash said. "What?!" Sonic growled. Crash walked out of the shadows, revealing himself to Sonic. "Who the hell are you?" Sonic demanded. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe if you actually bothered to turn up to your 'best friends' return you would know." Crash snapped back. "I'm Crash Bandicoot. And this is a lucky coincidence, because I was just out to find you." He turned to Rouge. "Quick, go!" he whispered. Rouge nodded and escaped via the shadows. "Now, question time…" Sonic glared at him.

The morning came, and Tails was one of the first to wake up. The first thing he noticed was that Pura had somehow snuck into his room and fell asleep on his lap. Tails chuckled, stroking Pura's warm ginger fur. Pura woke up and purred. Tails got out of bed, turning on his light. He froze. There was another note. Tails' mouth run dry, his heart almost stopped. He shakily picked up the note. He opened it up. He was relieved to see it wasn't from the mystery letter-guy. It was from Rouge.

*Tails*

I'm so glad to see you alive! I thought it wrong to wake you up, after all you've been through, and so I left this note. I know what Sonic is up to! I can't it in this note for I fear that it may be stolen by Sonic, but I can tell you in person! Your new friend Crash was about to start asking Sonic questions about stuff just before I left. I didn't know what happened next. Meet me in the garage at 3'o clock PM. Bring Crash if you want, if he wants answers.

Tails smiled at the note, quickly wrapping the note up in the envelope again. He slipped on his gloves and his shoes, which was technically his way of getting dressed. He opened the door to his room a stepped outside, followed by Pura, who was purring non stop around his heels. He went into the main lounge, where everybody usually had Breakfast. He was surprised to see Crash was already there. Crash was holding something very familiar in his hands. Tails sat down beside him. "Where…Where did you get that?" He said, pointing the White Chaos emerald in Crash's hands. Crash looked at his Twin Tails friend. He had a smile on his face. "I had a little run in with Sonic last night, and damn! That guy can move! I asked him a few question, I got some very small answers, and then he sped off! Just like a bullet! And he dropped this…" He smirked. He spun the Chaos Emerald on one finger. "Why do you need these anyway?" He asked. "Well, we basically keep them because its power can help our plans to stop the likes of Eggman conquering the world. Also, we stop people like Eggman again from using them. If we get any word on one of their locations, we go there on a search. It's pretty important." Tails explained. "Talking of their locations," A voice said from the doorway. It was Amy. "We've located another one Tails." Tails got up from his seat. "Where? Show me." He said. "It's a pretty familiar place. We've been there before.." Amy said, as if warning Tails.


	13. A Day in Town

A Day in Town

Amy lead Crash and Tails to a high tech scanner room. It was the room Tails used to pick up Chaos energy. Amy was passing by when she noticed the scanner had been set off. Tails sat down in a black leather chair, and typed in a few combinations into the key pad. The screen zoomed in on the source of energy. "Hm?" Tails sounded confused, he typed in a few more entries into the keypad. "This doesn't register as Chaos Energy…" he muttered. "Wha? What is it then?" Amy asked. "No…I couldn't be…." Tails gasped. He tapped buttons furiously, dying to get an answer. Crash was blown away by the amazing technology that was present in the room. Tails was getting closer to the mystery of what was reacting to Tails's scanner. He suddenly got it. The result immediately caught Crash's attention. "No way!" he laughed in amazement at the pinky Power Crystal on the screen. "Wow…that's pretty, but was is it?" Amy asked. "That, is a Power Crystal. Power Crystals are like my version of your Chaos Emeralds." Crash explained. He looked at the screen. "But what are they doing here?…I thought they only showed up on our Island…." "Well, maybe they appear elsewhere in the world as well." Tails suggested. "Yeah…I guess so." Crash nodded. "Amy, you said it's somewhere familiar to me…where is it?" Tails asked Amy. "You know, look, it's the cave that you and…" she stopped because she knew what she was about to say would set Tails off. Tails nodded. "It's okay…I understand.." he said, with a hint of sadness in his voice. "Sorry…" Amy whispered. "On a brighter note, the place is right through town, so maybe we can have a shopping trip while we're there!" she then went into a happier tone, and it perked Tails up as well. Crash seemed interested as well. "Hmm. Usually I'm not one to care for shopping.." he began. "I thought so…" Amy laughed. "But, since this is a new place, I'll have a look around, see what's there. Maybe buy a few souvenirs." Crash continued. "We'll get everyone together. You know, as a welcome back thing for Tails." Amy smirked. "Sounds great!" Tails nodded in agreement. "Question! What about Sonic?..." Crash asked. All three of them fell silent. "I..I don't know…I haven't seen Sonic since Tails crashed." Amy said. "Well, if it helps Amy, I saw Sonic late last night. He seemed…a little pissed off for some reason." Crash said. Amy's face lighted up somewhat. "Really?" she asked. Crash nodded. "Yep."

It was around 10'o clock now, everybody was up, and had been told the plans for the day. It was Amy who organized the events. "Okay so, we located an emerald, and it's right through town," Amy declared. "We decided as the party was ruined by someone, we'll have a shopping spree as a welcome for the Bandicoots." she smiled. Most of the guys groaned, but all of the girls cheered. "Not…Exactly my kind of welcome present..." Crunch sighed. "Somehow I knew you'd say that." Coco laughed. "Well….yeah, obviously." Crunch nodded. On the other side of the room, Tails was smiling and watching Coco talk with Cream and Crunch. He noticed how her hair wasn't in its usual Pony Tail position. It looked….well, prettier to Tails in his opinion. He knew he wasn't a hair expert in anyway but…… "Tails…" Crash tapped his shoulder. Tails shook his head, as if snapping out from a daze. Crash laughed. "You zoned out again." He smiled. "Y-Yeah…" Tails admitted. Crash seemed to memorize where Tails's head was facing. He smiled and smirked when he saw he was looking at Coco. "What do you think of her then?" He asked. "Wha? About who?..." Tails mumbled. "You know who! Coco…" He whispered in Tails's ear. Tails suddenly blushed deep red. "I!! She's…well…" he stuttered. "I'll give you time to gather your thoughts." Crash laughed, patting Tails's shoulder and walking off. Tails's cheeks were burning up with embarrassment. "…!" he didn't say anything for a while. While Crash was talking, Coco was watching them she smiled about how well the two got on, kind of like brothers almost. She was glad that Tails had turned up on their island. Amy came to sit by Coco, and tapped her on the shoulder. Coco turned her head to look at her. "Oh…Hi. Can I help you?" She smiled. "Yep, first are you looking forward to the shopping trip later? That is followed by finding Chaos Emerald. It's in a cave, it's potentially dangerous…" Amy said. "I say bring it!" Coco laughed. "I like your style!" Amy laughed back. 'I've got you now.' Amy thought smiling. "So Coco, I saw you looking over at Tails just now." Amy smirked. "Oh, Yeah?" Coco asked. She suddenly sounded a bit shy in her voice. "Well, I was wondering, what you think actually about him?" Amy asked. Now it was Coco's turn to go deep red now. "Eep…Um…ehehe…well…" she laughed nervously. "..I..I err….eh…" Amy seemed amused by her reaction. "Well, see you later." She smiled, and walked off. Coco gulped and took a breath. Tails was doing a similar thing. Outside of the room, round the back, Amy met up with Crash, both of them were smiling like idiots. "Results with Coco?" Crash asked. "Very, Very Positive." Amy laughed. "What about Tails?" She asked back. "Good, Funny and first-class reaction." Crash nodded. The two burst out laughing.

Much later, the group had ventured into town. The girls had gone into the fashion stores. By this time, Coco had put her hair back up into the classic pony tail. She, Cream and Amy were buying jewelry, new clothes and other girl stuff like that. Coco was surprised to see you could get personalized shirts. She got a white shirt with blue lines round the arm, neck and body openings. In the middle, was a silvery 'C'. The girls all liked it, so Coco decided to buy it. The guys were a bit stuck of what to do. They weren't really the type of people who would do shopping sprees. Shadow was walking through town by himself. He was personally more interested in finding the chaos emerald more than anything else. then he saw something, or more specifically someone. The Blue Blur himself was walking around the town. "Sonic!" He called out to him. Sonic looked over to him and smiled. "Shad! Shaddy-Shadow!" Sonic cheered happily. It was weird. He didn't seem so dark and mysterious as he had been recently. Shadow walked up to Sonic. "Where have you been all this time? Tails has come back and Knuckles has had his ass handed to him." Shadow said. Sonic looked dumbstruck. "S-Seriously?!" he gasped. "Where's Tails? Where's Knuckles?" he asked wildly. "Tails is somewhere in town, Knuckles is still at home. Someone ambushed him last night and broke his arm." Shadow said. "Ouch…." Sonic choked in slight disgust. "Well, gotta speed! I need to find Tails!" Sonic sped off through town, leaving Shadow on his own. '…I'll never understand him till the day I die…' he thought. As Sonic rounded the corner, he screeched to a halt. "Heh heh…it's working. If Shadow's fooled I got this in the bag…" he said to himself.

Tails was walking through town on his own for a while. His thoughts were clouded by numerous subjects. The one that stood out was his thoughts on Sonic. Maybe he had been too quick to judge him. They Tails crashed. He saw Sonic on the pathway. His face, was it a face saying 'Oh No!', or was it a face of 'Good Riddance'?.....Tails couldn't make the decision. If he ever saw Sonic again, unless anything further happens, he would try his best to be the 'little bro' Sonic knew. The second thing he was focusing on was Coco. Crash had backed him into a corner with his question. But he was right, what _did _he think of Coco? Coco was very comforting when he was remembering Cosmo, and it was also very refreshing to be able to talk to someone who could understand his 'technologic babble' as Knuckles used to call it. When they were repairing the Tornado, and making it into the Tornado III, there was always a smile on Coco's face. It always made Tails happy as well. He liked Coco, he liked her a lot, as a friend. Crash was seemingly trying to squeeze some little extras out of him. He looked around. He saw Coco walking through town with Amy and Cream. She seemed happy with them. Tails sighed. He thought about going to find the Emerald, but he knew he couldn't do it alone. Coco hadn't bought as much as Amy and Cream, but still had fun. "Anyway Coco, you didn't exactly answer my question earlier." Amy smiled. "Please leave me alone about that." Coco chuckled. "Is there something you don't want to tell us?" Amy smirked. "Cause it looks like you and Tails get on really well." "Well, yeah we're good friends; our interests are similar, although it's something that irritates most other people." Coco said. "But that's about it." "Yeah?" Amy smirked "Yeah!" Coco shot back. Amy just smiled. "Well, later we will be going to find the emerald. Until then, seeya!" She smiled. "I heard Sonic was around town, I'm going to go find him!" she dashed off ahead. "Hey Amy wait up!" Cream called out to her, quickly running after her, leaving Coco alone to her thoughts. 'Amy's really focused on me getting me to say something about Tails…' she thought. She thought about how Tails turned up on her island. She really liked how much Tails knew about technology and engineering. She also admired how Tails would never say die in times of battle. She looked around. She saw Tails in the distance. "Hey Tails!" she smiled, running over to him. Tails shook himself out of his thoughts and looked over at her. "Oh, hi Coco, what's up?" He smiled. "Well, me, Amy and Cream went shopping, and then Amy whizzed off to find someone called Sonic." Coco said. "Wait….Sonic…isn't that the guy you were talking about on the island?" she asked. Tails nodded. "Yeah…I think what I said about him on the island was out of anger…." Tails said. "Okay. You didn't tell us who Sonic actually is." Coco said. "Sonic is my best friend. He has been for at least half my life…" As Tails told how he and Sonic met, he could remember every last detail of that stormy night…

He was just sitting in a gutter, and had been drenched to the skin with the rain. He was shivering from the almost sub-zero cold. He was trying to sleep, but constant thunder and lightning kept scaring him awake. He was crying. He wanted family, he wanted a friend……A shadow suddenly fell upon him. Tails's heart skipped a bit, but then looked up. He saw the cobalt blue hedgehog with an umbrella standing over him. The hedgehog extended an open hand to Tails. Tails shakily reached out and took it.

As Tails told this story, he and Coco were walking through town together. Unknown to them, Crash was watching them from afar. He was smiling. 'Deny it all you want Tails, I can see right through you.' he thought, laughing slightly. After a while, Crash sighted a blue blur running through the town. '…hmm…' he thought. "Wow…so you just came up from living on the street. How…how do you know so much…if you lived in that kind of environment?" Coco asked, almost in disbelief. "I…I don't know, I've always had this knowledge." Tails shrugged. "Incredible…" Coco blinked in surprise. "SONIC!" a shrill shout sounded throughout the town. "Woah!" another voice shouted in surprise. There was a 'THUD' sound of bodies hitting the dusty floor. "Ouch…" the other voice groaned.


	14. The Expected comes Unexpected

Q&A

Okay guys, I got Answers for your Questions right here.

This chapters Question comes from Jeku, a reader from Finland. It's nice to see a range of peeps reading my story. Hell, I'm from the UK! Go Europe!

_Jeku asks_: Does Dr. Cortex get to fight Bandicoots and Tails again? I just thought that he might have some kind of plan for world domination...After all he wanted that crystal. =)

_Ebil answers_: When Cortex popped up to fight Tails and Crash, I was making him another roadblock for Tails getting to know what Crash was up against in his life, much like Tiny was when he showed up. However I do have plans for Cortex to show up again, due to the fact that I love his characteristics and attitude, he may come with a bit more of a part, and maybe with a lot more firepower than last time, but he's going to have to search pretty far to find Carbon's replacement. ^^

Don't forget to post your questions for my Q&A, just send me a Private Message with your question or questions. Yeah, the more questions, the more chance your will be answered! Have Fun, now's here your official Chapter 14.

The Expected comes Unexpected

"Huh?! What was that?" Coco laughed in surprise. "Judging by the voices…." Tails smiled as they turned the corner. What the two saw sent them into fits of laughter. Amy had literally rugby tackled Sonic to the ground and was clinging on to him for dear life. Sonic was propped up by his hand on his jaw, his other hand gently drumming on the floor in frustration. "Some things never change!" Tails laughed. Sonic looked up at where the voice came from. "Tails!!" He cheered in pure ecstasy. "Y-You're still alive!! Just like Shadow said!" he smiled. Tails folded his arms and smirked. "Still alive and kicking Sonic. I don't go down easily!" he nodded. 'You can say that again…' Coco thought to herself, smiling, remembering how Tails would not give in to Carbon until the final brick fell. After Sonic managed to struggle free of Amy's anaconda like grip, he stood up and brushed himself off of dust. He then embraced Tails in a brotherly hug. "Oh my god….Tails you don't know how mortified I was when I saw you go down!" he said. "I've seen plenty of horrifying things in my life. The world being blown apart, me being hideously transformed into a werewolf, a creepy possessed knight, but I have never before been as horrified in my life…" Tails smiled. "Thanks Sonic…that means a lot to me that you care." he said. They broke out of the embrace. "So, who's this?" he asks, referring to Coco. "Well Sonic, if you want to thank anyone for me still be alive, it's Coco here. Coco this is Sonic, Sonic this is Coco." Tails introduced the two to each other. "Pleasure to meet you." Coco smiled, offering a hand shake. Sonic accepted it and shook her hand. "The pleasure is mine to the person who saved my best friend's life." Sonic beamed. "My brothers Crunch and Crash came with me here, maybe you should meet them." Coco suggested. '_Hmm…Crash, I think I met him last night…._' Sonic thought to himself. "Okay, I'll see if I can find them. What do they look like?" he asked. "Well, you can't miss Crunch, he has a giant metallic arm. Crash wears jeans and wrist tape over his hands. You never know what he might do next!" Coco grinned, thinking of the thousands of possibilities Crash could do on this land. "So what're you guys doing in town?" Sonic asked. "I'm organizing that!" Amy called out. "Really?..." Sonic sighed slightly. Amy nodded. "Yep, everyone should be here soon."

Carbon was lying down on a branch in a tree, with a couple of earphones in his ears. The song 'Still Alive and Kicking' by Nonpoint, silently humming the tune with his eyes closed. He was about to nod off as the song came to an end when there were loud conversations going on just beyond the trees. "Guh…can never get a good sleep around here…what is it now?" he said to himself. He traversed from tree to tree until he found the source of the noise. It was Tails and his friends, they were seemingly being directed by Amy. He lay down on a branch to watch and listen. "Is everyone here? Great! We have Sonic joining us everyone!" Amy beamed in a very upbeat manner. Sonic folded his arms and smiled. "Anyways, we found the emerald tracings in the cliffs just on the other side of town. It can be very dangerous, so I suggest we have groups with an elder like Sonic and Crash, crunch etc." Amy continued. Crash nodded at this. "Okay, sounds fair enough." he said. Amy organized every into groups, with Shadow joining the hunt. The groups were Tails, Coco, Sonic and Amy, and the other was Crash, Crunch, Cream and Shadow. "Is everyone okay with the groups?" Amy asked. "Yep, we're fine." Tails nodded. "All Ready here." Crash gave Amy the thumbs up. Just as they were about to part ways to go look for the emerald, Crash stopped Amy." Huh? What is it?" Amy asked. "Hey, keep an eye on Tails and Coco for me, 'Kay?" Crash smiled. Amy smirked and nodded. "That, I will do." The two ran off to their respective groups. Still undetected in the trees, Carbon heard of an emerald. 'Hmm…I could help these guys out. I feel like doing a bit of treasure hunting anyway.' he thought to himself.

"Right Team, where should we look first?" Crash smiled. "We need to act fast. If we stall to much the Chaos Emerald could be swiped from our very reaches." Shadow mumbled. Crash looked at Shadow with slight confusion. "Dude? That's...not that likely. We've got at least 8 people working on this thing." He said with a raised eyebrow. "Yeah, I think is right." Cream smiled sweetly, holding Cheese to her chest. "Chao Chao!" Shadow shook his head and sighed. "I don't need you goofs. Finding a Chaos Emerald isn't a little fun team bonding activity you know. It can be a matter of life and death! The Whole fate of the world can depend on the use of a single emerald! The Chaos Emeralds..." "Dude….." Crash interrupted him. "What?!" Shadow growled. "Chill out…please…I got here yesterday and just want to see to see what's around. I don't want to be rushed to much…" Crash sighed. Shadow rolled his eyes. "See you later…" he grumbled, scaling down cliff and disappearing into the distance. "Geez…what that foo's problem?" Crush asked, scratching his head. "Oh, Mr. Shadow's always like that." Cream said. "Always?" Crash asks. "Well, the times I see him anyway." Cream replies. "Anyway, were to first?" Elsewhere in the cliff sides, Tails and his team were already searching in a cave. "There's nothing in here." Coco called out. "It's a pretty short cave, but maybe there's a secret thing in here, you know, that reveals something." Sonic said. "Yes, but that would mean that something is trying to hide it, and whatever that is will possibly try and get rid of us." Tails pondered. "Hmm…I guess so. Don't you have an Emerald Tracker with you Tails?" Sonic asked. "Oh Damn! I completely forgot!" Tails slapped his forehead in frustration. "It's okay Tails, I can get it quickly for you." Amy smiled, beginning to climb back up the cliff. "Thanks Amy. Hurry Back!" Tails called out to her. Sonic watched her leave. He smiled slightly, but not enough for Tails and Coco to see. Coco came out from looking in the cave. "Where's Amy off to?" she asked. "She's getting my emerald tracker from home, a little thing I invented myself." Tails said. Coco thought for a while about this. "And the Chaos Emeralds…they're made of a strong unique type of radioactive force that culminates in one spot to create the Emeralds…you have a device that tracks down that kind of energy?" Coco asked in amazement. "Well, it's quite simple really…I could make one for the Power Crystals if you wanted…" Tails said. "But still, the Emeralds have a seriously unique energy pattern that's almost impossible to single out." Coco smiled. "And you built it all by yourself?! Tails, you continue to impress me every single day!" she laughed. Tails blushed a bit. "Heh…thanks Coco.." Tails smiled sheepishly, like he always seemed to speak every time Coco did something he liked. "Hey guys! There's another cave just down there!" Sonic called out. "Might as well take a look while we wait for Amy!" Tails and Coco nodded, and looked to see where Sonic was looking. There was a small rocky platform that was lower down the cliff. "Are you sure that's safe?" Coco asked. "I'm sure there's more space inside the cave…" Tails said. "Yeah, there's an easy way up if we need it as well." Sonic said, pointing to a series of rocks ascending to a higher rocky platform. "Well, okay…" Coco nodded. "Tails, can you help me down there?" she asked. Tails nodded. "Of course." he smiled.

Amy entered the house that everyone lived in. She quickly ran inside Tails's room to grab the Emerald Tracker. She saw something that caught her eye. She felt reluctant about it, but her nosy attitude erged her to do it. On Tails' desk was his personal diary. Tails had carelessly left it open before he left the house in the morning. Amy walked over to it and turned a few pages back. She was surprised to see Tails had kept track of the time he went missing, even though he never took his diary with him! She read about the mini adventures Tails had on Wumpa Island, and what Tails thought about each of the Bandicoots. A few pages in, she read something that interested her. He had written the past few days as if he had written them on the actual day. The entry read,

"Dear Diary,

Phew!...I'm exhausted! Me and Crash went Crystal Hunting today. I'm impressed by the Power Crystals, they're like tall pink versions of the Chaos Emeralds! They seem to have a similar power reading as well!...."

Amy skipped ahead a few lines, until she found an interesting segment.

"Also today, I showed my ability to fly to Coco and Crash. Crash kinda forced me to show it to Coco, but she seemed to really enjoy it! IT kind of made me…well, feel fuzzy inside…She's been making me feel that way for a while now. I'm not sure if I should be writing this in, just in case someone looks in here…but, I feel like Coco is the new Cosmo to me…Cosmo also made me feel fuzzy like that…"

Amy smiled and chuckled at this. She closed the diary, but then she thought again. If Tails came back and found his diary open, he'd knew someone was looking through it. She turned the pages back to the empty page that it was on, and went out of his room. On the way, she heard Knuckles make some sort of groan. "Hey Knuckles, how are ya feelin'?" She asked, walking in to the hospital wing of the house. "Urgh…rough…" Knuckles groaned. Amy sat down on a chair nearby. "I…I heard you guys are searching for another emerald…how's that going?" Knuckles moaned. "I was just coming back to grab Tails' Tracker. But guess who turned up today! Sonic!" Amy smiled. "mm…it's about bloody time too…" Knuckled sighed. "Where did you find the Emerald readings?" "We singled them out to a place in the rocky cliff side. We're thinking it's in one of the caves there." Amy said. "Wh-Where's Sonic now?..." Knuckles blinked. "He's searching around with Coco and Tails." Amy replied. "……You need to get back there!...I'm not trusting Sonic at the moment…!!" Knuckles choked. Amy seemed shocked, but she nodded and ran out of the house.

While Sonic scaled the cliff wall with his hands, Tails had taken hold of Coco's hands and gently flew her to the rock platform. When all three of them got down, they all looked into the dark cave that awaited them. "You think it's in there Sonic?" Tails asked. "Well….It's worth a try…We've always have to search every nook and cranny for the Emeralds." Sonic nodded. "That's a good point…." Tails replied. The three of them ventured into the cave. Coco stayed close to Tails as the further they went in, the darker it got. Sonic was scarily lingering near the entrance of the cave. "Well, it's a deeper than the others, that's a start, I guess…" Coco said walking a little closer to Tails. "Yeah, we could have something here…" Tails said. Sonic turned away and strolled outside of the cave into the sunlight. He put one hand on a rock slab and leant on it, looking out towards the outside. Tails looked around the cave. He saw some odd carvings on the wall. He inspected them closer. Most of them seemed to include emeralds and crystals. "Hey Sonic, have you seen anything like this?" Tails asked, turning his head to Sonic. "Huh?...Sonic what're you doing?..." He asked suspiciously. Sonic was smiling. "I'm just…you know…admiring the sunlight, the view that kind of thing." he said. Tails rolled his eyes. "Like always, you're so laid back." He chuckled. Coco slightly tilted her head slightly. '…' She saw the stone slab that Sonic was leaning on. "You know…" Sonic suddenly began. "We take sunlight for granted. I mean what if we never had it? What would our life be like without it?" "Good question Sonic, for a start, we wouldn't be able to see anything, the only sources of light would be electronic devices…" Tails said. "And also natural lights created by flames and so on." Coco finished. "Shut up…" Sonic snarled suddenly. Coco and Tails were completely shocked. "Wh-What?!" Tails choked. "I'm saying, we take our light for granted. So how will you survive _your_ life without any light or resources whatsoever?!" He laughed evilly. "What are you sayi-!!" Coco shouted. The Stone Slab Sonic was leaning on suddenly pushed into the wall. The whole cave was suddenly engulfed in a loud rumbling. "Aahh!! What's happening!?!" Coco shivered with fear. "Wh-What?! Sonic what the hell did you do!!" Tails shouted. Sonic just stood outside the cave. "I'll see you two later…" he laughed. The cave started to literally 'cave' in! Rocks started to fall; dust was kicked up into the air; and vision was disappearing rapidly. ":cough: Coco! :cough:" Tails shouted. "Where are :cough: you?!" "T-Tails!! Look…" Coco shouted, before she suddenly fell silent. "C-Coco!!...." Tails couldn't say anything else, as his vision went black, and he couldn't feel any of his limbs, or hear anything except the rumbling of the rocks…Sonic stood outside of the blocked off cave. The smile on his face was just evil. He started whistling the tune to 'Another One Bites the Dust'. "Sonic!!!" there was as shout. Sonic looked up to see Amy. "S-Sonic What happened?!" Amy gasped. Sonic just looked up at her for a while. "W-What?" Amy asked. Sonic suddenly grabbed Amy and pulled her down. She landed on the rock with a huge thud. "GaH!! Sonic!" she shouted. She tried getting up, but got kicked in the face by Sonic. This sent her rolling off the edge of the cliff! Quick as a wink, she grabbed the ledge with both hands. "Sonic What're you doing!?!" She yelled. Sonic approached the edge and looked down at her. "Seeya…" he smiled, giving her a friendly wave. Using his famous Super Sonic speed, he zoomed out of sight, leaving Amy hanging for her life. "You!! SONIC!!!!" Amy screamed. She could feel her left hand slipping off the platform. She was left hanging by one hand. She looked down at the rocky chasm below. 'Well…this is it I guess…' she thought. She felt her hand slipping. Going…Going……….Something grabbed her hand just as she began to fall!! Amy blinked in amazement and looked up at her savior. "C-Carbon…" she gasped at the white and green Bandicoot.


	15. Molten Ice

Q&A 

Question Timez! If I get three questions by the time the next chapter is done, I shall remake the First Chapter =P I'm Serious! Send in those Questions!

This Chapters Question comes from the Indonesian E-Guy. The guy is currently on a Killing Spree 0_o. He also seemed a little reluctant about asking his question. Actually, he asked two questions, one just recently through PM, and one in his review, so I'm just going to answer both, if that's okay with E-Guy.

Question 1

_E-Guy asks:_ _I've never heard about Carbon before. Is he your OC? _

_Ebil answers:_ Carbon Crash is the official name for the 2P character in Crash of the Titans and Mind over Mutant. Basically press START on a second controller, and Carbon will pop up. To answer any other questions, I gave Carbon a role in this fic just simply because I was always forced to play as him when playing with my sister. Also because I see him as Crash's version of Shadow.

Question 2 (From an early review)

_E-Guy asks__: I've played almost all Crash play station 1 and 2 games, CTR, Crash collection, crash bash, CB the wrath of cortex, Crash Twinsanity, CTTR, and Crash of the titans.  
Correct me if i'm wrong, but Crash isn't supposed to TALK!! Aren't you aware of that?_

_Ebil answers:_ Yeah, I'm aware of that, but as of Crash of the Titans, Crash's speech ability has been rapidly improving from small grunts, to gibberish and eventually…….PANCAKES!!! So yeah, this is when his speech is completely enhanced. I might write a prequel to this story, explaining Crash's speech and Carbon's origins.

Molten Ice

Amy breathed a huge sigh of relief as Carbon pulled her from what could have been her final close call. Carbon pulled her up to her feet. "Carbon…you…you saved me again…" she panted, smiling. "I'm sorry, I never told my name. I'm Amy, Amy Rose." Carbon smiled and nodded. "Yeah, your friend Shadow told me that." "You met Shadow?" "Yep, toughest guy I've ever faced, in strength that is." he said. "Sometimes heart and the will to continue can seemingly overshadow strength…." "What do you mean?" Amy asked. "Never mind…" Carbon shook his head. Amy ran over to the closed off cave, which was blocked by tons of rocks and boulders. "Tails?! Coco!? Are you in there!!?!" She called out. "Tails? Coco?!" Carbon gasped. "You know them?" Amy blinked. "Do I? Coco brought me into this world using science!" Carbon said. "Wow….Tails!? Coco!?"

In the cave, a few rocks started to move. "Ugh…my…head…where…" Tails groaned. He pushed a couple of boulders off of him. He held his head in pain, breathing heavily. He struggled to get the other rocks off of his legs, but eventually rolled out of the wreckage, and lay on the floor, bleeding from his forehead. "Co…Coco?..." He whispered. "Coco where are you!?" He crawled through the dark cave, coughing on the dust that had settled. He gripped onto rocks in the wall to help him stand up. He felt immense pain shoot up his leg. "Agh!...C-Coco!!" He cried out in pain. He heard a rumble in the rocks somewhere. "Coco…no…oh no dear god!!" Tails hobbled over to where the noise came from. He fell to his knees. "Co…Coco.." he gasped. He shifted a dozen rocks and pulled Coco's unconscious body from the rubble. She had a few bruises, but no major cuts or wounds. Tails breathed a sigh of relief. "H-Help! Anyone!" he shouted out. His voice echoed down the dark corridors of the cave. Tails was scared. His latest best friend had been knocked out, the two were trapped in the cave, and Tails could hardly walk. "A-Anyone?..." He whispered. He looked down at Coco, who he had gently cradled in his arms. He tried to get to his feet, carrying Coco in his arms. "D-Don't worry Coco…I'll get us out of here.." he whispered to her. He looked around the cave. The only seemingly way out was through the dusty caverns of the dark and dusk cave. 'God help us…' he thought. He suddenly heard a voice from the other side of the blocked off entrance of the cave. "A-Amy? Amy is that you?!" he called out. "Tails! You're still alive! Where's Coco?" Amy shouted. "She's…she's here….unconscious, but still alive." Tails sighed. "Hey Tails, there's…there's someone here you might know…" Amy gulped. Carbon stepped forward to the caved off section. "Tails…remember me?" he said. The voice startled Tails. "C-CARBON!? What have you done!?!" Tails gasped, stepping backward, sending pain up his leg again. "T-Tails listen! I'm not here to do what I did before….I'm here to help you!" Carbon quickly replied. "It's true Tails! He saved me! From Sonic…" Amy admitted. "…are you sure?…" Tails mumbled. "Yes Tails…just please trust me…" Carbon said calmly. Tails gulped and nodded. He had to get out. "Tails said. Amy looked down at the Emerald Radar. It showed signs of life. "Tails…the Radar's picking up something in that cave…I think the emerald's in there." She said. Tails looked down the cavern. He looked at Coco, still unconscious in his arms. "I..I just want to get Coco out of here…" He whispered. There was silence for a while. Amy struggled with her words. She wanted to make a remark about Tails liking Coco a lot, but the situation was leaving Tails desperate for help, so she didn't bother. "Hey!! What's happening down there?" a voice shouted out. It was Crash and his group, excluding Shadow. Crash quickly descended the cliff, immediately locking his eyes on Carbon. "Oh Shit…" Carbon gulped. Crash grabbed Carbon by his collar with extreme anger. "What the fuck did you do!?!" he shouted. "Crash! Calm down!" Amy squeaked. She squeezed in between Crash and Carbon, pushing the two apart. Crash tried to lunge at Carbon again, but Crunch grabbed him just in time. "Crash, wait! Let him explain!" he said quickly. Carbon held his collar in pain, as he wasn't expecting such a strong grip from Crash. "Wh-What's going on?" Tails mumbled from the other side of the rocks. Crash immediately turned his attention to the cave. "Tails?! Tails is that you!!? Where's Coco?" He called out, running up to the rocks. "She's…She's here…" Tails said. "She's hurt though Crash…I'm so sorry…." Crash nodded slightly. "But she's still alive, right?" "Yes thankfully." "Okay…that's fine, all we need to focus on is getting you and Coco out of there." Crash said. Crunch quickly approached the rocks. "Do you think we can shift these out of the way?" He asked. "I don't think so…" Carbon said. "Who gave you permission to talk?!!" Crash shouted. "Crash shut it!" Amy growled. "Let him speak!" This did indeed shut Crash up. "Sorry…bad history with him.." he whispered. "Look, these rocks are holding up the rest of the cave! Removing them would cause the rest of the cave to collapse! We can't take any risky chances." Carbon said. Crash nodded. "Right. Tails is there anyway you can see that leads out of there?" Tails looked around him. "There's only through the cave…where it leads I don't know…" He looked back at Coco. "I'm going to take this chance." he announced. Everyone was shocked. "Tails, wait! You can't!" Amy stuttered. "Who's stopping me?" Tails said with determination. Silence. "Go for it Tails…please come back alive…" Crash nodded. "I will Crash, I'm not disappointing you!" Tails replied. He began to slowly and steadily, a touch painfully down the dark cavern hall…

Far Away in the distance Sonic stood on a Cliffside. He could see the whole situation happen. "Hmph…interfering Bandicoots…can't let anything go." he tusked to himself. "Excuse me?" a voice said. Sonic sighed and turned around…then looked up at Tiny. "Who the hell are you?" Sonic growled. "Tiny's boss want to speak with you…" Tiny said. Sonic waited, thinking. "Fine…make it quick…" he sighed, following Tiny. Tiny lead Sonic to a blimp, were a ramp laid in wait. "This way." Tiny instructed. Sonic walked up the ramp. He was impressed by the mechanical work. "So, who runs this place anyways?" He asked. "Cortex does! He Tiny's boss!" Tiny replied. They eventually reached the power room of the blimp. A small machine kept a Power Crystal suspended in mid-air. A small man with a rocket implanted in his head was working at an engine. Another small man with an Over Sized Squarish head had with his hands behind his back, looking out of a window. "So, who here wanted me, the Fasted Thing Alive?" Sonic asked. Cortex turned his head. "Ahh, you, Sonic the Hedgehog am I right?" He asked. "Yeah? What about it?" Sonic shot back, folding his arms. "Well, your work impresses me so much…I mean you're the Fastest Thing ever to set foot on this planet. That is a very desirable skill. But you and I seem to share a common enemy." The Scientist smiled. He pressed a few buttons on a computer. Various information on a certain twin-tailed fox came up, with a 3D Render to go with it. Sonic twitched. "God, you've got that right…" He growled. "But I've taken care of the little runt. He's trapped in a cave…forever!" Cortex shook his head. "I doubt that." he said. He tapped in another set of numbers. Info on Coco zoomed up. "Do you know who this is?" Sonic seemed to pause to take in the info on the screen. "She's that Blondie that Tails brought back from his little near death experience." He shrugged. "So?" "This girl is like the female version of Tails. They have almost identical IQ and way of thinking." Cortex explained. "With two great minds together, finding their way out of a simple cave should be a simple problem." Sonic suddenly laughed. "But first off, they probably need to find their way out of the rubble that they got squished with." "Very True, but if you truly want to rid of that meddling fox, you can team up with me. I can help you with what you want to do, and you'll do" Cortex smiled. Sonic thought about this. 'This kinda strays off my original plans, but getting Tails out of the way would definitely open a ton of doors for my plan.' He thought, a sinister smirk growing on his face. "All right Brainiac! I'll do a deal. Once I help with what you want, and you help me do what I need, we part ways. If we need each other again, we'll both be there like that." Sonic snapped his fingers. "Deal?" "DEAL!" Cortex smiled. They two newly allianced twosome shook hands.

As his breath echoed through the caverns, Tails' limp was getting worse. The darkness was starting to close in on him. Coco was still unconscious in his arms. Tails couldn't walk another step, but he knew he had to keep going. "nng..." he moaned in pain. He was beginning to slow down. The atmosphere was getting surprisingly cold and frosty. Tails was freezing. He looked around for any possible means of survival. His eyes suddenly fixed on something. A small ice colored light at the end of a tunnel. Using whatever leg strength he had left to hobble his way toward the light. He stopped suddenly. The blue light suddenly had a flame like light coming from it. It stopped, and then started again. Tails' heart rate increased a couple of beats. He held Coco close to him. He slowly approached the lights. The closer he got, the more clearly he could hear a bored voice, monotonously singing. "da da d-da, burning down the house…" it groaned. He could hear a flame thrower igniting. Staying in the dark, Tails made his way closer and closer. Luckily, the voice was round a corner, so Tails wasn't completely exposed. He carefully peeked his head round the corner. He saw an incredible specimen. He wasn't sure what it was, but it looked like a cross between a Dingo and a Crocodile. Whatever it was, it had a large gas tank strapped to his back. In its hand was a giant bazooka looking gun, which was spouting flames like no tomorrow. The whole new cavern he had discovered was made shining Ice, the walls, the ceiling and the floor. The Dingo-Crocodile thing was melting it all. He looked painfully bored. "da da d-da…" Dingodile sighed. "God, why can't anything exciting happen?" He talked into an ear piece. "Patience Dingodile, our new recruit may have a mission for you." Cortex's voice said. "Alright Dingoddude, listen up. Two of our targets are trapped in this cave. One you should find increasingly familiar according to Cortex. A certain Coco Bandicoot to be precise, and her little friend Tails." The voice of Sonic spoke up. Dingodile's ears pricked up. "Ya got me listenin' mate." He smiled. "I want you to search these caves, and find. If they're alive, burnt them, burn them until they are just charred figures of what they were." Sonic instructed. "Bonza." Dingodile nodded. He clicked his flamethrower into 'UNsafety' mode. Tails could hear most of the conversation, but from what he heard Dingodile say, he didn't like the sound of it. He took a step back. He slipped on a layer of ice! "Eep!" he squeaked. He quickly regained his balanced and silenced himself. Dingodile turned. Tails gulped. 'Crap Crap Crap!' he thought. Dingodile smiled. He started to trudge toward the corner. Tails tried backing away, but his leg was starting to cripple underneath his own and Coco's weight. He fell back, slamming on his back, accidently dropping Coco as well. "AGH!!" he shouted in pain. He clenched his eyes shut through the searing pain. When he opened his eyes, Dingodile was standing over him, smiling like a pyromaniac. "Break out the butter, gonna make TOAST!!" he laughed. "Waah!" Tails yelped. Quickly grabbing Coco, hoisting her into another cradle, he spun his tails and darted down the cavern, narrowly avoiding a jet of swiftly vanished into more dark caverns. He paused to catch his breath, and to recover from his back smashing on hard ice. He heard something that lightened his spirits. Coco moaned a little. "C-Coco? Are you?..." he quickly asked. Coco coughed and opened her eyes groggily. "T-Tails?..." She whispered. Tails nodded. "Yes…its me…" he whispered back. There was a moment of silence, until Coco pulled Tails into a giant embrace. "Th-Thank you…" she smiled with tears in her eyes. Tails hugged her back. "I just want you to be okay…" he admitted. Coco nodded. "I can't thank you enough for saving me…the last thing I remember was Sonic pushing in that slab…it pushed in like it was designed to do that…Tails, I have a feeling this whole thing was set up…" she said. Tails heard stomping echo through the caverns. "We've got to move!" Tails quickly said. "Wha? What's wrong?" Coco asked, confused and startled. "It's…somesort of crocodile dingo thing...it's got a flamethrower…I would fight it but…my leg…I can't…feel it anymore…" Tails panted. Coco quickly had a look at Tails' leg. It was heavily bruised, with plenty of cuts. Tails winced in pain. "S-Sorry…" Coco quickly apologized. "I-It's...okay.." Tails gasped. She quickly reached into her backpack, pulling out a few bandages. After cleaning the cuts, Coco gently wrapped the bandages around his leg. "Th-Thanks…" Tails smiled. Dingodile suddenly turned the corner. "Gotya!" "RUN!" Tails shouted. He quickly scooped Coco into his arms and propelled himself forward. "Eep!" Coco yelped.

The group had scaled back up the cliff, Crash went off to see if he could find an alternate way for Coco and Tails to get out of the cave alive. Carbon had gone into a tree, he was looking to vanish into the forest. "Carbon wait!" Amy suddenly called after him. Carbon stopped. He hooked his legs on the branch and hung upside down facing Amy. "Yeah?" he asked. "I..I can't thank you enough Carbon. You've saved me twice now…and I can't see any real reason for you doing so.." She smiled. "It's just the right thing to do. No one deserves to die prematurely." Carbon said. "Yeah, but, when I was just about to fall off that cliff, you were suddenly there….it's not like you were already there." Amy replied. "To be honest Amy, I over heard you organizing that Emerald Hunt. I thought I'd go looking as well." "Really?" Amy questioned "Yeah, I had fun doing it as well." Carbon nodded. Amy walked towards Carbon a bit more. "Well, I guess I'll see you later." Carbon said, beginning to pull himself to a sitting position. "Wait…" Amy said. Carbon stopped and looked at Amy in his upside down hanging position. "Yeah?" "I..I just want to give you thanks…the Amy way." She smiled cutely. She approached him, and then gave Carbon a small kiss on the cheek. "See you around Carbon…" she giggled, seeing the expression on his face. She ran off toward the market. Carbon was completely stunned. His legs slowly slipped and landed on his head. He was too shocked to feel any pain. "Did…She just..." He said to himself, almost in babble talk he was so stunned.

Coco held on Tails as he sped through the cave. Tails soon came to a corridor layered with freezing ice. It was intensely cold. "God, it just goes on forever!" Tails panted. "There must be a way out!" He landed on his feet, and ran forward more, ignoring the pain in his leg. He eventually stopped. He gently put Coco down on her feet. Tails was incredibly worried. "I don't think there's anyway out…" he whispered. He closed his eyes and hung his head. Coco quickly embraced him in a hug. "Don't think that Tails…there's always a way…" She whispered back. She saw something at the back of the room. "Like that…" she smiled. "Like what?" Tails asked. Coco pointed to an icy wall. Tails turned his head, and his hopes were immediately lifted. Encased inside it, was a glistening sliver emerald. "A Chaos Emerald!" Tails gasped happily. The two ran to the frozen emerald. "Now...how to get it out." Coco pondered. "I've got it…I hope.." Tails gulped. His tails started to spin rapidly. He drove them into the ice. It was like a buzzsaw in action! Ice shards flew in all directions. Coco covered her face with her hands. Inevitably, Tails pried the emerald out of the ice. "I've…I've got it.." He smiled. He had a few ice shards in his head, bleeding slightly. Coco quickly went about carefully taking the shards out of his head. A jet of flames spewed from nowhere. Once again, Dingodile had tracked them down. "You're mine now…" he smiled. Tails wagged his finger. "I don't think so…CHAOS CONTROL!!" He held onto Coco when he said this. The two vanished in a silver light. "What? Crikey!" Dingodile flinched in surprise. "Dingodile? What's happening?" Cortex asked. "They…just vanished!" "Did they have anything with them?" "W-Well, they had a Power Gem…I think…just smaller." "ffffuck…" Sonic groaned.

The sun was beginning to set behind the hills, giving the sky an orange glow. Crash was sitting by the Cliffside, his legs hanging over the side. He was looking out at the landscape, and his expression was the most worried it had been in a long time. Behind him, the snowy white Carbon walked behind and sat by him. Crash looked over at him, but only slightly. "So…Carbon… you've come to your senses haven't you?" he said, a small smile on his face. "Yep. I got frustrated with Cortex and smashed something round his big brainless square head." Carbon nodded. "I'm sure the sound echoed his head was so hollow." Crash laughed a bit. "But seriously now…thanks for helping us out with Tails and Coco…I just want to find a way out for those two." "A chance will come for Tails, the kid never says die and never gives in. And that's something I truly admire." Carbon said, remembering the battle between the Twin Tailed Dynamo and himself. "He has one of the most painful kicks I've ever experienced." "Well so have you." Crash admitted. "That Norris Roundhouse you nailed on that Spike a few years ago was impressive." The two continued to talk about the times they had together, and they did so for a while. Then Crash spoke. "Carbon, I think I've been too quick to lose my trust to you. If I've been a proper scientist like Tails and Coco, I'd of known what was up." he sighed. His extended a hand out, for a handshake. "Friends?" He asked. "Friends." Carbon accepted, shaking his hand. A luminous white light appeared behind them. "What the?!" Carbon choked in confusion. As the glow vanished, Tails looked a little weak. "Tails! Coco!!" Crash shouted happily. "Y-Yep!" Tails gave Crash thumbs up. Crash gave Coco a huge brotherly-sisterly hug. Tails tried stepping forward, but nearly collapsed under his crippled leg. "Woah!" Crash quickly stopped him from crashing to the floor. "Dude…You need some rest, you look completely destroyed…" Tails nodded at Crash's judgment. Carbon ran up to them. "I knew you guys would find a way!" he beamed. Tails looked up at Carbon. "Th-Thanks…and thanks for saving Amy as well…" he grinned. "Yeah…she thanked me for that earlier…" a huge smirk appeared on Carbon's face. "Come on you guys, let's get you home." Crash suggested. Everyone nodded. Coco assisted Tails in walking back home with his brave and battle damaged leg.


	16. Hidden Feelings

Q&A 

Today's Question comes from QuickmanFTW, also from Britain! Yay!

_QuickmanFTW__ asks: Are we going to be seeing anymore fan pairing in this story? Aside from the obvious TailsXCoco._

_Ebil answers: _Pink and White, that is all I'm really saying. Stay tuned.

Oh hang on! I got another one, from my good friend Forcewalker! He is the one who inspired me to write this fic, because of his own TailsXCoco, Someone Smart like Me. It's a one shot, but its excellent!

_Force asks:_ _Is the Sonic we're seeing the real one? Because I see a hint in an earlier chapter that it's an impostor._

_Ebil answers: _The Mystery of Sonic will be revealed, all in good time my friend. For now, keep reading to see how Sonic and Cortex's partnership holds!

Hidden Feelings

Coco helped Tails, still hobbling, into the big futuristic house along with Crash. Carbon had vanished into the forest, much to The Bandicoots and Tails' dismay. Carbon was thinking about what Amy did to him earlier. The warm fuzzy feeling of the kiss still lingered on his cheek. Carbon couldn't keep a small smile off of his face. Nothing on the entire planet could have prepared him for it. It was a complete shock to him. He lay on his back in a tree, looking up at the stars. He was thinking more about that pink hedgehog. She had a certain charm about her. Carbon wasn't sure which aspect of her was so uplifting. Was it her smile? '_No, something else…' _Was it her bubbly personality? '_Hmm...Maybe…'_ Carbon couldn't make up his mind. He reckoned he would think about it as he slept. But one thing was defiantly for sure in his mind. He needed to get more thank-yous from Amy! Carbon laughed at this thought, before nodding off to sleep. He opened his eyes again though. "Hang on a sec…If I tag along with Crash and Tails…maybe I can get more time with Amy…"

Amy, Cream, Crunch, and others were in the main lounge. Cream was doodling some sad pictures, worried about Tails and Coco. Cream's mother Vanilla was serving some munchies, which Crunch accepted gladly. Amy seemed down in the dumps as well. She was thinking about Carbon. She didn't know why, she didn't know how. Twice in a row, Carbon had appeared from nowhere to save her. "Come on everyone." Vanilla tried to perk everyone's spirits up. "I just want to know where Tails and my Sis are…" Crunch sighed. "So do all of us..." Cream said in reply. Suddenly they all heard the front door whir open. All of them turned their heads. "I'll see who it is!" Rouge called out. She ran to the door. Her expression lightened up immediately. "Guys! It's Tails! And Coco!" she shouted out. Tails smiled. "You should know me by now Rouge. I don't go down easily." He nodded. Tails, Crash and Coco got to the main room, causing uproarious joy! Tails had once again avoided the pain of death! The two got about a thousand hugs from everyone, including an almost bone crunching one from Crunch. "Tails! You did it again! You always pull through in the end!" Crunch beamed. "Thanks…but Coco found the emerald that helped us…" Tails said. "Tails you always do this…" Amy protested. Tails turned his head to her. "What do you mean?" He asked. "You always seem to shift the fame to someone else. You never let yourself get any of the triumph you deserve…" Amy said. "Yeah Tails, you did do pretty much everything. You helped me when I was out cold, even with your hurt leg you refused to give up!" Coco said. "Yeah…I guess…" Tails nodded. "Listen. You deserve every bit of praise you get today Tails. Today you are the hero!" Amy smiled. Tails smiled as well. "She's right." Coco smiled. Tails turned to face her. "You did everything. You always have on the island. You've faced up to every challenge that came your way. Tiny, Cortex, Mecha Bandicoot, Carbon…" Amy's ears perked up at this. 'Carbon? Tails fought Carbon?' she thought. 'Maybe that's what he meant when he said heart can overcome strength….' "You've done the lot! You should be proud." Coco smiled. Everyone agreed. Tails blushed a bit. "Thanks everyone…" he smiled. "Now, who wants some celebration food?" Vanilla called out. Everyone cheered and dashed for the dining hall.

Vanilla had made an incredible blueberry pie. Everyone enjoyed it, especially Tails. He felt like a hero, and everyone treated him like one too. Coco sat next to Tails. She liked how he was extremely happy. She smiled as she took bite of the delicious pie. She didn't notice it left a mustache like mark on her mouth. Crash noticed and burst out laughing. Coco was initially confused. Tails noticed and stifled a laugh. "Coco, you've got…" He giggled, motioning that there was something on her top lip. She realized and laughed as well. She quickly wiped it off, Crash still laughing his head off. Meanwhile, outside Carbon came up to the front door. It wouldn't open, and he saw a hand scanner next to what he supposed was the door. Slowly, being unsure of what would happen, he reached out and placed his hand on the scanner. A small red light rolled up and down his hand. Carbon held his breath. He didn't know what was coming next. Halfway through the meal, a sudden series of beeps interrupted them. Tails swallowed his mouthful and looked around. "Somebody's trying to get in…" he said. He quickly left the table and left the room. "Uh...please excuse us." Coco quickly said, getting up to follow him. Amy thought about who it could be. She had an idea, and also got up to follow them. Tails came to a security room, with small surveillance videos showing various areas of the house. "So what's happening? What's with the alarm?" Coco asked. "The Security System in this house works with a hand print based key system. Somebody who isn't registered in the files on the house is trying to get in." Tails said. "Did you set all this up?" Coco asked. "Well…yeah…" Tails said. Coco, once again was impressed. Tails tapped some buttons into the computer. The cameras switched until it came to the front door. "Let's see…hey…that's Carbon!" Coco smiled. Tails was amazed he thought carbon had gone off into the forest. But now he was here. "Do we let him in?" Tails asked "We do." Coco nodded.

Outside Carbon took his hand off of the scanner, seeing that nothing was happening. The scanner suddenly read 'Access Granted!', and the metallic door opened. Amy was just about to go into the security room, when the door opened. "Carbon!" She smiled. Carbon looked around while walking in. "Wow…quite a place you got Amy…" he smiled. Tails and Coco came out of the security room. "Good to see you Carbon!" Coco smiled. "Same here with you Coco." Carbon smiled. Tails, Coco and Amy showed Carbon the way to where everyone else was. Crash smiled as Carbon came in. "Hey everyone, this is Carbon. He's one of The Bandicoot's friends." Amy announced. Everyone warmly welcomed him. Amy sat down next to Cream. "Hey Amy? Isn't that the Carbon that saved you from those robots?" She whispered. Amy nodded. "Yeah." she smiled. "Well, I didn't say it when you first mentioned him but, when you said his name, you went all misty eyed and kind of drifted off into your own little world." Cream said. "Did I? If so what about it?" Amy asked "You usually do that when you think about Sonic, right?" "Grr...well, I did when I used to think of him that way…" Amy sighed. "Amy, do you?..." Cream started to smile a bit. Amy suddenly caught on to what Cream was trying to say. Her cheeks immediately turned Scarlet Red. "No! Of course not!" She quickly replied. "You've been teasing Coco and Tails for a long time now. Once they find out about this, they'll get their payback." Cream giggled. "Chao!" Cheese laughed. "I do not…" Amy stated quickly. On the other side of the table, Crash watched them. Carbon was sitting next to him, with a fizzy drink in one hand. "What do you think they're talking about?" Crash asked. "I dunno, whatever it is must be pretty embarrassing for Amy, look at her face!" Carbon laughed. Crash smiled and laughed as well. "Maybe they're talking about who Amy, you know, would like to date." Carbon chuckled. Crash nodded. "Heh, speaking of romance, look over there." he said. Carbon looked over at where Crash was pointing. He was pointing at Tails and Coco. "They're perfect for each other." Crash chuckled. "I can guess why." Carbon smiled. The whole party was a success, with everyone enjoying themselves, with Vanilla tirelessly providing snacks and other delicious treats.

Inevitably, everyone was starting to get tired. Cream had gone off to bed, still smiling at Amy's flustered face earlier. Crunch had almost fallen asleep in his chair. Tails had gotten up and gone to the security room again. He was sitting in the leather chair and was setting the house into lockdown mode. He also went through the files off the people who were permitted into the house. It had every one's finger print in it. He needed to add Coco, Crash, Crunch and Carbon's prints to the files. He went through everyone's names. Among the permitted were Rouge, Shadow, Big and even Froggy, through Big's request. He stopped suddenly. He had come to a certain blue hedgehog's information. He stared at the profiled picture long and hard. He looked down at the key pad. He had nightmarish flashbacks about what Sonic had done. First the betrayal at over 1000ft. He could remember it like it was yesterday. He could still feel the injuries he got from the crash. He held his shoulder lightly. He almost dislocated it in the crash. He was lucky that Coco was there to save his life. Then there was the cave incident. Tails looked down at his leg, which was still bandaged up. Again, it was Coco that did that…He had a lot to thank Coco for. He typed in a few settings on the keyboard until

DELETING FILE: SONIC 

DELETE SUCCESSFUL! 

Tails smiled. Sonic was no longer permitted to enter the house. Tails stood up from his seat, feeling quite happy. If Sonic had any plans to retrieve anything from here, he'd have difficulty doing it without setting an alarm off. He walked out of the room. On the way, he almost waked into Carbon! "Woah! S-Sorry!" Tails quickly said. "Hey! Oh hi Tails, how are things going since we last met?" Carbon smiled. "Okay, I guess…" Tails shrugged. "You don't seem okay, what's up?" Carbon asked. "Well…one major thing has been bugging me for a while…and…it's kinda…" Tails blushed suddenly. "I get ya drift." Carbon smiled. "Yeah…I've been thinking…about Coco…she's…I don't know how to say it…" Tails whispered, still blushing. Carbon nodded. "I see…" he said. Tails was silent for a long time. "I don't know what to say…I really don't…" he sighed. "I just feel something…" He decided to walk off to bed. Carbon watched him go. "Hmmm…" He thought. "So, what was that about?" a voice said. Carbon turned around to see Shadow. "Oh, hey Shadow, you missed an awesome party just now. About that? Well, I think Tails is having some emotional difficulties at the moment." The White Bandicoot said. "He said something about Coco; do you think he may be getting feelings for her?" Shadow asked. "Heh, it's a possibility." Carbon smirked. Shadow nodded slowly, he had no emotion on his face. "You know, you need to lighten up. At least smile." Carbon sighed. Shadow just vanished into the darkness. Carbon shrugged. He wondered were he would sleep that night. He'd find somewhere.

Coco sighed as she lay down on her bed, Pura just lying beside her. Also in the room, Polar was sleeping in the corner, snoring a little. "Heya Pura, sorry I've been away all day." Coco said to her pet tiger. Pura purred and rubbed against Coco's face. He noticed that she had a few bruises on her. He let out a confused mew. "Y-Yeah. I have a rough road today." Coco explained. "But, Tails was there, he was always there for me…" She held Pura close to her. "Pura, what do you think of Tails?" she asked. Pura smiled and purred. "You like him? Good…because…I like him a lot…" Coco smiled blissfully, laying her head down on her pillow. "I don't know what it is about him. He has this charm about him that draws me in." She sighed, before partially drifting off to sleep. "I'm glad I know someone like me. I hope he never changes…" Pura turned off the light with her mouth. The room was black, a bit of light coming from the moon outside. Pura curled up by Coco and fell asleep. Tails was walking past Coco's closed door. He smiled slightly. 'I hope she never goes away…' the kitsune thought. He walked onwards, approaching his own room. Someone suddenly grabbed him from behind. "MMM!!" Tails yelped, although it was muffled by a gloved hand. It was Shadow. The Ultimate Life form shoved Tails against the wall. "Right, start talking Fox. What's the catch with Coco?" He growled. "Wh-what?!" Tails choked. "You know what I'm talking about. She's too innocent and quiet at times! What is she hiding? How is she helping enemies?" Shadow seethed. "Shadow! That only happened once! It wasn't Cosmo's fault!" Tails wheezed. "And it's going to happen again. I can feel it!" The Ultimate Life Form declared. Tails sudden landed a punch on Shadow's jaw. "Y-You're paranoid!" The twin tailed fox shouted. Shadow then landed a haymaker of a punch to Tail's face. The blow sandwiched his head in between the wall. There was blood on Shadow's hands. "What was that?!" Carbon called out. Carbon ran to the scene. "What the hell Shadow!!?!" He yelled. Shadow growled at him. "Stay out my way Carbon!" "Not likely!" Carbon grabbed Shadow and shoved him against the wall. The sound of the punch earlier woke Coco up. "Wh-whu? Tails?" she mumbled. She quickly got out of bed and put on her dressing gown. She opened her door and dashed to where the noise came from. "What's going…Tails!!" She yelped, seeing Tails sitting on the floor, blood running from his lip and nose. She crouched by him, the fox looked dazed. "Tails? Are you okay?" She asked. Tails looked in pain. "I'm okay…I'm…okay…" he gasped. Coco helped him to his feet. Meanwhile, Carbon busy throwing Shadow out of the house, literally. Carbon opened a window and booted Shadow out. "And stay out!!" he shouted at him. He slammed the window shut. "Tails, you okay?" he asked. Tails nodded. "Yep…I had worse…" he said. "He has Carbon," Coco said. ", and survived it all." Tails smiled at his bandicoot friend. "Well, no that's all sorted. We all need a good nights sleep." Carbon said. Tails and Coco nodded. "See ya later." He went off to somewhere in the house. Tails wiped the blood away from his lip and nose. "Damn…that stung a lot." He said to himself. He turned to Coco. "Th-Thanks, for being there so quickly…that means a lot to me." he smiled. Coco blushed a little and smiled back. "You're welcome." She simply said. Tails was confused. "Why are you blushing?" he asked, starting to blush a little as well. "Um…I don't know…" Coco mumbled. She gave Tails a quick hug. "Good night Tails..." she whispered before trotting off to her room. Tails was blushing even more. "What was…" he muttered to himself. Coco jumped down onto her bed, blushing and smiling. "Oh…I love hugging him…he's so soft and gentle…" she sighed, and then fell asleep. Tails went into his room and sat down on his bed. He slipped off his shoes and gloves. He took hold of his diary and his pen from his desk. He didn't write a long entry, he simply wrote a small sentence:

"I think I'm falling in love with Coco…."


	17. Crash & Burn

FORCEWALKER's QUESTIONS

My good friend ForceWalker has asked three questions, and here are my answers.

#1___Where the hell is Eggman? We haven't seen him in like forever._

Answer: In an earlier chapter, Eggy said to Rouge that he would not attack any corner of the globe until he found out what had gotten into Sonic. In the meantime, he's been keeping a low profile for some reason...

_#2__Why did Shadow believe Coco could have been a spy? I know that Cosmo was a spy, but why would he think that of Coco?_

Answer: Ever since Cosmo was discovered as a spy, Shadow developed paranoia of Tails' female friends, as he doesn't want history to repeat itself.

#3_Will Uka-Uka and Aku-Aku have a major part in this story?_

Answer: I can confirm that Aku Aku will appear a few times in this story, although I haven't quite thought about any involvement for Uka Uka

Crash & Burn

The Morning Sun beamed through Coco's curtains, illuminating the room with a faint orange glow. Coco slowly fluttered her eyes open, and gently yawned. She sat up in her bed, immediately noticing Pura on her lap. Coco's movement woke the little tiger up. He purred and rubbed against Coco's leg. The young Bandicoot Girl smiled, and stroked Pura's back. She felt a little guilty. Pura had always been her best friend through all her and Crash's adventures against Cortex. It had been over 4 years. But them Tails came along, and changed pretty much everything in her life. Coco had only known the Kitsune for about 3 weeks now, and she had felt more comfortable with him then anybody else in the world. She still smiled at Pura. She had decided that Pura was still her best friend. Tails was in a whole class of his own. She got out of bed, swinging her legs over the side and jumping to her feet. She sat at her desk and began combing her hair, as it had become quite frizzy over night. When she had finished combing it, making it it's usual blonde self. She was just about to tie it into a pony tail, but then she stopped. She remembered the day they were preparing for the emerald hunt. She hadn't put her hair up just yet. She remembered seeing Tails out of the corner of the room, and had seen his expression. It was one that could only be described as "mesmerized". She smiled at the thought. She looked in her desktop mirror. She herself found her hairstyle quite stunning. 'This feels so weird...I've only known Tails for a few weeks, but it feels like I've known him all my life...' Coco thought, gently putting her hair band on the desk. '...is...is this what love feels like?...' she blushed a little at this thought. She opened a draw and put the baby blue headband into it, and then closed it again. She smiled at her hair as it waved slightly in the breezy spring air coming through the window. She got dressed, putting on her new baby blue and silver shirt and jeans on, then clipped on her dungarees, before venturing outside her room.

As she walked through the halls, she could hear faint sounds of a buzz saw and some other mechanical equipment being used. Coco pondered over what it could be. She followed the sounds of it, and they lead her to a steel door. It read in engraved letters: "Tails' Workshop". This intrigued her, she gently pushed the door open with her hand. The door creaked open. She blinked to see the Tornado III in all of it's Mechanical glory. She strolled in, still looking at the Tornado. She heard some whistling, before it was drowned out by a welder fizzing. "Hey Tails? Are you in here?" She called out. "Coco? Is that you?" Tails' voice called back. Tails was on the other side of the Tornado, just underneath it, welding some bits and bobs. He had a small leg cast on his left leg, the one he had injured in the cave. He came out from underneath the Tornado and came round to see Coco. He lifted up his welding mask. "Hey Coco! Had a good night?" he asked cheerily. "Yeah, I guess so." Coco nodded. "So, whacha makin'?" "Well, I'm just trying to increase the Tornado's capacity to move at trirochular trajectory in the Ubercran philosophy in the Eranadion State." Tails said. There was a brief pause, and awkward one for Tails. "You...Do you get that?" He asked sheepily. "Yeah, I got that. Makes sense." Coco smiled. "Y-You do?...Sorry...I usually ramble on about this stuff...I..I always do it..." Tails blushed and sighed. Coco tilted her head a little and took a step toward the Kitsune. "Hey, it's allright, I don't mind." She chuckled. "I think it's cute." Tails' blush almost maximised. "I...ur...Y-Yeah...thanks Coco..." he stuttered. Coco giggled. "Anyways, can I see your progress?" The blonde bandicoot said happily. It took a few seconds for Tails to regain his composure after Coco's comment, so he just nodded. He showed Coco round the other side of the plane, to where he had almost finished an update on the Tornado's engine. "Wow, you can do a lot by yourself!" she smiled. "You've already increased the Portesian Complex Wave up to Teridenioln Standards! That must of taken a long time!" Coco laughed in amazement. "Yeah it did. I've always had the idea to upgrade that, even when it was the Tornado II." Tails said. Coco tapped at the metal around the part Tails was working. "You definitely put heart and soul into this back at the Island. I'll never forget everything you did there, I hope you haven't forgotten everything that you saw there." Coco looked at Tails hopefully. "Coco, I have to say Wumpa Island is probably the most beautiful place I've ever been to. Nothing could prevent me from remembering that place." Tails smiled. "Thanks." Coco smiled. She quickly took a wrench in her hand. "So, need a hand?"

Crash strolled through the hallways of the technologically advanced house. He wasn't really into techie things, but he couldn't help but marvel at the sturdy walls and fizzing lights. "Damn...how hard does this kid work?" He chuckled to himself. "He's like, what, 10 years old or something. Huh...same as Coco..." he smiled gleefully. Oh he knew Coco's feelings. She couldn't hide anything from her big brother. Crash passed by a window, which blared the golden sun into the house. He stopped suddenly, and back peddled his steps to look outside. He didn't like what was in the background. Past the lush green hills and sparkling city, he saw an all to familiar blimp. His smile gradually faded, as his left eye twitched a little. "What's he doing here? Can't he just leave me well enough alone?" he cursed to himself. "Hey! Morning Crash!" Amy's voice rang out cheerily. Crash turned to see the Pink Hedgehog run towards him. "What's wrong? You look all down in the dumps." She said. "Well, where do I start? Look out there." Crash pointed out of the window. Amy took a peek out of curiosity. "Umm..I see nothing wrong..." "Focus on the the background." Amy narrowed her eyes to focus. Then she saw it. "That looks....slightly creepy. Why are you bothered?" Crash sighed and tightened his gloves. "Bad Experiences and Bad Past with that thing." he said. "If anybody wants me, tell them I maybe in the city." "What? I don't..." Amy blinked in confusion "Just say it. And if Coco, Crunch or Tails ask, mention the blimp. They'll catch on." Crash forcefully instructed. He made a dash for the front door. On the way, he almost knocked over Crunch. "Woah! That's not cool! Fold Your Laundry!" The Metallic armed Bandicoot exclaimed. Amy quickly rushed to stop him from toppling over completely. "Where's he goin' in such a hurry then?" Crunch asked. "He told me he was going into the city...but then again, he seemed to be bothered by the Blimp in the background." Amy said honestly. "Blimp? Show me this Blimp!" Crunch said. Amy ushered him to the window Crash was just at before he dashed off. "Ooooh....that blimp....yeeeahh...best leave Crash to this. His attitude gets pretty bad when he's messing with that thing. "You're telling me..." A voice said overhead suddenly said. Up in the pipes above, the Snow White Furred Carbon was laying lazily overhead. "Oh hey Carbon! Didn't see you up there!" Amy looked up and chuckled. "How'd you get up there?" she asked. Carbon looked down and smirked. "Agility Ames, I have it." he laughed. Amy blushed a little. 'Heh...Ames...I like that...' she thought to herself. "When did you suddenly come on our side then?" Crunch asked. "Since I left Cortex's side. It bored me after a while, so I thought I hang with you guys again." Carbon said. Honestly though, Carbon couldn't remember why he switched sides.

In the hills, Crash still made his way to the area which the Blimp was located. "I'll get you Cortex...I won't forgive you for everything you've done to my friends!" he said to himself. He still had nightmares about the plots of Cortex, and loads more about his creation at the hands of Cortex. He could still remember the blazing lights shining into his very soul. He shivered at the memory. He stopped for a while. He looked onwards and the ominous blimp ahead of him. 'Can I do this alone?' he thought. 'Yes, Yes I can! You can't bring the others into this...especially Tails! He's been through enough already...but...he's been an unstoppable force so far...God, Aku Aku help me...' He thought, sighing. "I can help you with that Crash." a voice said in his head. "Wha? Aku Aku? Is that you?" "Yes it's me Crash, behind you!" The Floating Mask appeared through a portal of green mojo. "Hey, what's up? How's the house repair doing?" Crash smiled. "Very Well, it's nearly done." Aku Aku nodded. "Just a head up, I not sure if Coco will want to go home _just_ yet." The Headstrong Bandicoot smirked. "I don't understand..." Aku seemed confused. "We all reckon Coco has a thing for Tails." Crash laughed. Aku Aku still seemed confused. "Kids these days..." he sighed. "Anyway, why are you out here?" Crash's smirk turned to a look of seriousness now. "Cortex is just over there...I need to know what he's here for. I can't let him hurt my friends again. Last Time was just horrible..." Crash sighed. "But surely you can't do this alone..." Aku Aku objected. "I can't get Tails or Coco involved. They've been through enough already." Crash said. Aku Aku thought for a while, then agreed. I guess you're right...let's go Crash, I can sense Bad Mojo from here..." Crash nodded, and began running for the blimp once more.

Back in Tails' Workshop, Tails had put the Radio on, so he and Coco could listen to music. They had made a lot of progress on upgrading the Tornado III. Coco was tapping her foot to the sound of Mercy Drive playing in the background. The machine gun on the bottom of the fiery machine had been amped up so it fired around 55 shots per second. Tails was in the cockpit, putting in some combinations into the keypads. He looked through the window, looking at Coco. She was leaning against one of the legs of the Tornado III, which were used to help it stand, land, and take off, and she was bobbing her head to the music. He sighed and leant on the side of the window in the cockpit, resting his head on his hand. He couldn't turn his eyes away from her. "Hmm..." he sighed. He was thinking about his feelings towards her again. Coco looked up at him from below. She was thinking similar things about Tails. She sighed, and then started going up into the Tornado via the stairs leading up to it. When she came in, Tails turned around in his seat. "Tails? Can I talk to you for a second?" she asked, sounding shy almost. Tails took her tone of voice into account. "Yeah, what do you want to talk about?" he asked. Coco walked into the cockpit and sat beside the kitsune. Tails suddenly noticed she was blushing a little. "Anything wrong?" He asked calmly. "W-Well...I....you know back at the Island, our house was ruined by Cortex?...Well Aku Aku is repairing it and..." she paused for a second. "And...and what?" Tails asked. "..and when he's finished...I'll have to go home..." Coco sighed. "Then I won't see you again...and I don't want that to happen.." she shuffled a little closer. "I don't want to have to forget you Tails..." Tails was blushing now. "R-Really?..." he asked. Coco nodded. "Well..." Tails smiled, still blushing. "I don't want to have to forget you to Coco." Coco looked at him hopefully. "D-Don't you?" she asked. "Of course..." Tails nodded. He put his hand on Coco's accidently. This cause Coco's cheeks go bright red. "T-Tails..." she whispered. "Yeah?" Tails smiled. Coco looked down at their hands. "N-Nevermind..." she smiled back. "Hey, do you want to go into town later?" she asked. Tails thought for a while. "Yeah okay, it'll give us a break from this work." He said happily. "Yeah..." The blush from Coco's face never faded.

Crash had ran through the city, and was now directly underneath Cortex's giant blimp. "This isn't good Crash. The Bad Mojo I can sense is even stronger of that of my brother. Please be careful....Crash?" Aku Aku looked over at Crash. He had frozen for some reason. "I..I can sense it to....its that strong..." he gasped. "This may be too dangerous..." He shook his head. "No, I must do this.." He scanned his surroundings, as well as the confused bystanders looking up at the giant blimp. He saw a way up. Quickly, he scaled a nearby building, much to the confusion of bystanders. He was soon on the highest building, within reach of the blimp. "Here goes nothing..." Crash said to himself. He took a few steps back, then ran up and leapt for the blimp. He grabbed the side, making the blimp rock a little. Inside, Cortex and Sonic were planning out when they would strike on the town, thanks to Sonic knowing all of the weakness of his ex-friends, when the blimp rocked. "god...what was that ?!" Sonic shouted out. "A Cling-On, Cap'n!" shouted back. Unphased, Cortex typed in some co-ordinates into the giant computer he had, which resembled the Load/Save screen from CTR. A screen showed up with a surveillance camera showing Crash jumping onto the ship. "Grr! Meddling Bandicoot!" he growled. "Hmm...better disguise oursleves first..." he pondered. He pressed a button. Several banners advertising a brand of pies suddenly replaced the giant N in on the Blimp side. "Now for the bandicoot!" He slammed on a button on the control panel. On the pathway that Crash had boarded, several Laser Cannons rose out of the floor. Crash smirked. "Ahh...this brings back memories..." Crash chuckled. Before the cannons had a chance to lock-on to their target, Crash had jumped onto one of them and decapitated it. He threw it at one of the other cannons, smashing both of them. Crash quickly turned his head just in time to see the other cannons finally locking onto him. One shot a laser at the Bandicoot. Unfortunately, a design flaw by Cortex meant the laser was slow, yet strong. Crash smirked. "Same Old Same Old." He vaulted over it with ease, as he did with the others ahead. Sonic was getting irritated. "Come on!! Seriously?! Lasers?! That's pathetic!!" he shouted at Cortex. "Woah! Calm down...I've got a little surprise for him later. He always does this, the same pattern. He's a dead bandicoot now.." Back outside, Crash had made it to the entrance of the Blimp. "Crash, the bad mojo feeling is getting strong...too strong. Please be careful....

Tails closed the workshop door and locked it. "Where're you two off to then?" Crunch asked, who was nearby, leaning against the wall, ready a magazine. "Town." Coco said simply. "Huh, okay. While you're there see if you can find Crash. He went earlier." Crunch said, turning back to his magazine. "Okay, we'll see what we can do." Tails nodded and smiled, and began walking with Coco down the hallways. Amy saw them as they walked by. 'Hey...I wonder where they're going...' she thought, smirking to herself. 'As if I couldn't guess...' she chuckled lightly to herself. When outside, the Bandicoot and Kitsune pair made their way towards the city. "Does Crash usually go out to places this early in the morning?" Tails asked. "Just a question." Coco thought for a while. "Hmm, when I think about it, no...no he doesn't...huh, must be up to something..." she shrugged. "Anyway, where do you want to go?" she smiled up at Tails. Tails shrugged "I don't know, you? I thought we could just walk around and see what comes up." he said. Coco grinned. "Sounds good to me." She said sweetly. They went to the city centre together. Tails was having a great time with Coco. He hadn't felt this much....what's the word...he couldn't think of it. He just felt seriously comfortable around the blonde haired Bandicoot.

Crash managed to infiltrate Cortex's blimp, walking among broken turret pieces. "How's that Bad Mojo feeling?" He asked Aku Aku. "Still growing stronger Crash....ever stronger." The mystical mask muttered. "What can Cortex be up to this time?..." "We won't know until we go out and look for it! Lets Go!" Crash started running through the highly industrial interior of the blimp. This caused the security turrets to work over time trying to lock on to their target. To most that got in the way of his running path, they were instantly smashed off of their stands. "Damn it!" Cortex cursed from his control Base. Sonic sighed. "If you want something done properly..." he muttered. He started walking away from the control base. "You've got to do it yourself..." he cracked his knuckles and readied himself to run. "Eh? Where are you going?" asked. "Going to kick some bandi-ass!" Sonic smirked. He suddenly took off like a blur, leaving a small smoke trail as he went, and it stayed there for about 5 minutes or so, which freaked out. Crash was finding the dash through the blimp pretty quiet, until Aku Aku suddenly stopped. Crash screeched to a halt and looked back. "What's wrong dude?" he asked. Aku Aku looked around, worried. "H-He's around!" he gasped. "W-Who? Who is?!" Crash questioned. "T-The source of the bad mojo! It feels like it's right here!" Before Crash could say anything else, someone suddenly attacked him from behind, smashing him to the floor. "CRAP! Who's there!?!" He shouted, holding his head in pain, rolling to his feet. "So, you're this....Crash Bandicoot. I was expecting a little more out of you." Sonic smirked. He had a metal pipe in his hand, and was twirling it in his hand. Crash growled at him. "You...Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog..." he seethed. "Yep, the one and only." Sonic smirked, holding the pipe over one shoulder. "I have a few bones to pick with you...you were Tails' best friend! You almost broke his heart! He looked up to you like a brother, a GOD almost!" Crash shouted. Sonic shrugged. "Meh, what use was he anyway?" he asked. "I find him a huge use around the place. He is a great friend, with a heart of gold. I can't find any possible flaw in him, and I definitely can't see why ANYONE would betray him." Crash yelled in fury. "Calm Down Crash..." Aku Aku whispered. "You would if you lived with him for about 8 years..." Sonic said quietly. "Now anyway, you shouldn't be here..." "What're you doing in here anyway!" Crash seethed. The Blue Backstabber shrugged. "You probably didn't know. I'm working with The big NC, Neo Cortex now!" Both Crash and Aku Aku's eyes shrunk. "Y-You're not serious...are you?!" Aku Aku stuttered. "Oh it's true, its damn true!" Sonic laughed. HE suddenly swung the pipe at Crash, smashing him square in the face, knocking him to his knees. Crash felt some blood trickle from his nose. "I think its my duty to kick you out of here!" Sonic chuckled. Crash scrambled to his feet. "I..I think not!" Sonic sighed, and made another swing fro Crash. This time Crash was ready, he ducked the shot, and sweeped at Sonic's leg, making him stumble and drop the pipe. Crash saw an opportunity, and landed one hard kick to Sonic's temple. "Dammit!" Sonic seethed. Crash wiped the blood from his nose. "Aku! Help me out here man!" He called out. "What's a mask going to do?!" Sonic chuckled, a red mark appearing on his cheek. Aku Aku floated quickly toward Crash. Crash quickly grabbed him, and quickly flipped the mask to use him as a make-shift skateboard, gently floating in mid air. "Catch me if you can!" He shouted out. He zoomed forward, suddenly jumping and rebounding off Sonic's chest, knocking the hedgehog down, and firing himself towards Cortex's control room. As Sonic watched him speed if, he chuckled, and grabbed the metal pipe.

Tails had been shopping with Coco, and they bought many items from the shops, including some lunch. They had sat themselves down on a nearby street bench to eat their lunch. Tails took a bite of a ham and lettuce sandwich he bought. "Have you had a good day Tails?" Coco asked. "Mpyemph Imuhavmph." Tails nodded with a mouthful. He paused suddenly, then swallowed. "S-Sorry...Yes, I've had a lovely time." He said. Coco chuckled. "Great. Me too." she smiled. She looked at him adoringly. She couldn't think of anyone she'd rather be with at that moment. She shifted up beside him a little. She felt like she had something to tell him. A small blush crept across her face. Tails noticed this. "Hey, what's wrong? You're blushing..." he said. "I..It's nothing..honestly." Coco whispered. "Oh come on." Tails chuckled shifting closer to her. He put a hand on her shoulder. "Please?" he asked. Coco looked at his face and blushed deep red. "Honestly...its nothing..." she said. "Are you sure? 'Cause you can tell me anything you like. I feel like I can tell you anything I want." Tails replied. "R-Really? Do you trust me that much?" Coco asked. Tails nodded. "Of course I do. I can go as far as saying that you're my best friend. I...I feel more comfortable when you're around." Tails said, now he started to blush. Coco's ears perked up at this. "You...You do?" she asked. "Y-yeah...I mean...well...you're really friendly, understanding and...just an amazing person all round." Tails blushed deeper when he said this. "Tails...that's really sweet..." Coco smiled, still blushing. "It's funny...I think the same for you...."

The door to the main control room suddenly gave way as Crash burst in, flattening a Ratnician as he did. Cortex spun around quickly as Crash jumped off of Aku Aku. "Sup Cortex." Crash smirked. "Meddling Bandicoot! Can't you just leave me in piece?!" Cortex sighed irritably. "Haven't you learnt anything from the past 6 years or so?" Aku Aku questioned. "You just can't win. Maybe world domination isn't your thing, try something else, like...I don't know, Flower Arranger? Store Clerk? Something else?" Crash shrugged. "I will NOT give up Bandicoot! You aren't going to get in my way! Not this time!" Cortex seethed. Out of nowhere, Sonic suddenly showed up with the pipe in hand, seemingly materializing right in front of Crash! "What the Fu-" Crash gasped, before Sonic smashed his face in with the pipe. "You don't run from me Bandicoot!" Sonic smirked. Crash held his forehead in pain. "D-damn...you're quick..." he moaned. "I'm the fastest thing alive, bitch! No one can outrun me!" Sonic shouted, smacking Crash again with the pipe. Before Aku Aku had time to react, Sonic had already smashed him with the pipe as well. Crash struggled to his knees, blood dripping from his forehead and nose. Sonic walked over to him and forced him to his feet. "Say hello to Tails back down there." he smirked. Crash suddenly let loose a huge haymaker to Sonic's jaw. Sonic stumbled back. Crash wrenched the pipe from his hands. Cortex grabbed his electronic laser gun and aimed it at Crash, but then Crash smashed him with the pipe. Sonic growled, and started up for a spin dash. He launched forward towards Crash. Crash swung the pipe in front of himself to block it. Sparks flew as Sonic hit the pipe, and the sound resembled that of a buzzsaw! After a few seconds, Crash pulled the pipe away. The end had been sawed down so much that the pipe had an extremely sharp end. "Hmmm...this could come in handy." he said to himself. Sonic charged again, but Crash flipped the pipe round and nailed him with the blunt end. With both Sonic and Cortex down, Crash walked up to the Control Screen. He looked at the controls, and then up at the screen. He tapped in a few buttons. The screen went red suddenly, and an alarm went off. "Crash? What did you do?" Aku Aku asked. Crash shrugged. "No Idea! Lets go!" He made a dash for the window. "Crash! What're you....." Crash suddenly smashed the window with the pipe that was still in his hand!. The smash was incredibly loud, and brought the attention of several bystanders in the street below, including Tails and Coco. The two looked up to see the window smash! "W-What the?!" Coco blinked in surprise. Back in the blimp, Sonic heaved himself off of the floor. He heard the alarm blazing, and saw Crash near the smashed window. "You won't get away!" Sonic used his omega speed to forearm Crash in the back of his head. This almost sent Crash flying out of the window, but Crash grabbed the supports of the window, and hung there by one arm. Tails choked on his sandwich. "Th-Thats Crash!!" he shouted. "Oh my god! CRASH! WHAT'RE YOU DOING!?!?!" Coco shouted up at her big brother. Crash gasped as he pulled himself up, the sharp pipe still in his hand. "Y-You don't give up do you?" He growled at Sonic. Using the sharp end of the pipe, he stabbed the blimp exterior, making a huge rip in the material! The blimp began to lose control! "What did you do?!" Sonic shouted. "Thats for me to know and you to find out!" Crash smiled. In a fit of Rage, Sonic punched Crash in the face. Crash lost his grip on the blimp and fell through mid air. "H-He's falling!!" Coco gasped. "I got him!" Tails spun his tails increasingly fast, and launched himself into the air. Crash looked down at the ground below. 'I guess this is it...' he thought. Suddenly, he felt himself jerk, as Tails grabbed him. "I got ya Crash!" Crash looked up at the twin tailed fox. "T-Tails! Thank god!" he smiled. Tails lowered him gently to the ground, where Coco was waiting. "Crash! My god you okay?" She asked, worried. Crash smiled and nodded. "B-Been better.." he said. "We need to get you some medical attention. That gash is pretty big!" Tails advised. Crash nodded, wiping a bit of blood from his nose. The blimp started to descend towards the ocean. Inside, Sonic was cursing under his breath. He ran into the control room and grabbed Cortex by his lab coat.. "C'mon Brainiac! We're abandoning ship!" he sighed. HE got to the window and jumped before the blimp hit the sea with a splash. Sonic landed on the beach just inches from the sea. He dumped Cortex down. "Well...that could've gone better." Cortex sighed. "Don't worry brainiac, I'm not finished with that bandicoot..."

"….and definitely not Tails....not by a long shot...."


	18. Start your NGins!

BTW, New Format ^_^

FORCEWALKER'S QUESTIONS 

_Q1)Will we see an Eggman/Cortex team up in the future? It would be the  
ultimate __evil genius__ partnership? _

_A1)_I never really considered making that happen, but maybe they will. I'll see how the story progresses, and will decide later.

_Q2) Why is it taking so long for Tails and Coco to admit their feelings to each  
other? _

_A2)_ Well, in my perspective as an author, I want to save it for a lot later, but in the characters perspectives, Tails and Coco are way too shy to admit just yet.

Start Your 

Wow, what happened up there Crash? These are some serious cuts!" Tails gasped. They were in the medical facility, where Cream's mum, Vanilla, was helping Crash with his bloody cuts.

"Really? I swear I've had worse..." Crash mumbled.

"Yeah, to be honest Crash, these are some of the worst cuts you've had in a while." Coco nodded.

Crash raised an eyebrow, just as Vanilla was putting a large plaster over a washed wound to stop the bleeding.

"Seriously? Damn...." he sighed. "Sonic must've messed me up more than I thought..." he mumbled under his breath.

"What was that Crash?" Tails asked.

"Eh? Oh, it was nothing..." Crash quickly said. Coco didn't seem satisfied with Crash's answer.

'He's never been this beaten up from an encounter with Cortex before....there must be something he's telling us...' she thought. The sun was beginning to disappear behind the hills, and the moon starting to rise, illuminating the fields with it's silver glow. Everybody started to go to bed.

As Coco went to her room, she couldn't help but feel eyes on her. She looked around, and caught a glimpse of a shadowy figure in the shadows. It was a hedgehog, Coco knew that, and he had his arms crossed, leaning against the walls. Shadow had locked his eyes on her, with a look of 'I'm onto you'. Coco was a little shaken by his sudden appearance, and backed away into her room. She closed the door quickly, and just for sheer safety, locked the door. She breathed a sigh of relief.

'Man...Shadow always creeps me out...' she thought. 'He just appears out of nowhere...creepy...' she sighed.

She sat down on her bed. Pura trotted up beside her and lay on her lap. Coco giggled and stroked him.

"Hey, Pura....you like Tails right?...." She asked. Pura nodded and purred happily.

"Well...." She looked at her door, to make sure no one was listening.

"What if I told you that....I..I was getting feelings for him?...Romantic ones..." She was blushing as she asked Pura this. Pura tilted his head. He seemed to understand and smiled.

"Y-Yeah...I'm still thinking about it...but how do I tell him?..." Coco pondered. She lay down in her bed, Pura trotting up beside her head.

"I guess the time will come on its own..." she whispered, and then fell asleep.

Tails hadn't gone to bed yet. He was leant on a window ledge, looking at the night sky and the stars. He seemed a little troubled, his twin tails swishing below him gently, creating a breeze by his ankles. Crash was turning into his room to go to sleep when he noticed Tails. He walked up to him.

"Hey Tails? What's wrong? You look kinda down in the dumps." he asked.

"Hmm...It's just...I don't know..." Tails sighed, blushing a little.

"I don't want to say it..." Crash leant down beside him.

"Why not?" he asked. He got an idea in his head.

"Is it about Coco?" he asked, but not in a mocking kind of voice, like he usually did during the day. Tails blushed a deep crimson.

"Y-Yes....yes it is..." he whispered. He looked around quickly to see if anyone was around. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw there wasn't except Crash.

"You don't want anyone to know do you?" Crash said gently.

"No...I don't......" Tails whispered back.

"I...I think I'm in love with her Crash...I really do..." he blushed even more when he said this and turned his head back to the window. Crash smiled a little.

"Knew it..." he said. "Listen Tails, just because she's my sister, doesn't mean you can't have feeling's towards her. When you showed up on our island, and saw how well you two got on with each other, I actually wanted you too fall for her. You're perfect for one another." The Bandicoot put a hand on the kitsune's shoulder. "I bet she feels the same way about you.." Tails turned his head to Crash.

"You really think so?.." he asked. "Of course. She always gets flustered around you, haven't you noticed?" Crash smirked. Tails thought for a while.

"Y-Yeah...but I'm afraid of telling her..." he sighed. Crash raised an eyebrow.

"Why?" he asked, confused

"W-Well....my past love interests haven't...well.....ended up positively..." Tails sighed and hung his head.

"I..I never knew you had over loves..." Crash blinked in surprise.

"I've never wanted to mention them...first there was Fiona...a fox who I trusted like nobody else. I felt she was like a big sister to me." His hand suddenly scrunched up into a fist in anger.

"Then she turned on us all....she just left...her attitude changed completely...." he growled.

"Th-Then..." his hand then became shaky and no longer was in a fist.

"Th-Then there was Cosmo...." he sighed. He suddenly looked on the verge of tears.

"She cared for me so much, she treated me so well...I actually felt important...." he stopped suddenly. Crash was almost afraid to ask.

"Wh-What...happened to her?..." he asked. Tails' fingers twitched a little.

"Th-There was a supernatural power...that was going to destroy the world...she...she suddenly did something...I don't what. B-But then we could destroy it...and her at the same time...." he whispered. Tear drops splattered on the ledge.

"And I had to be the one who pulled the trigger...." He turned his head back to Crash.

"I don't want Coco to have a similar fate..." Crash nodded. He completely understood the situation.

"Okay..." he whispered.

"Sh-Should I let you tell her in your own time?..." Tails nodded.

"..Please..." he said. Crash began to walk off, turning his head to the fox, he resumed looking out to the stars.

'Poor Guy...' he thought. He walked off into his room and closed the door. Tails looked down at his feet and sighed.

"Maybe I just wasn't made to be loved...." he muttered to himself....

It had been a week since Crash had launched his attack on Cortex's blimp. Coco and Tails had been up to their usual mechanical ways, but Coco had immediately noticed that Tails was much more quiet than he usually was. She wondered if she should ask him what was wrong. For some reason she didn't. Instead she was stuck worrying about him. At around lunch time, she was swirling her tea around with her spoon. Cream walked in with a small sandwich, Cheese held at her stomach by one arm. She noticed Coco in the dining room. She sat down at the table opposite the Blonde Bandicoot.

"Hey Coco. What's up?" she asked innocently. "Chao Chao!" Cheese yapped.

"Oh hey Cream. I'm just worried about Tails. He's been really quiet as of late." Coco said, looking up at the cream furred rabbit. Cream thought for a while.

"He may be shy?...." she said.

"But what about?..." Coco asked. Then a thought suddenly hit her. She started blush. She looked down into her tea, pondering about the reason she thought of.

"Coco? You okay?" Cream asked. Coco smiled sweetly and looked back up at Cream.

"Yeah, I'm fine now." she chuckled. She finished drinking her tea, put it on the table and went out of the room, ruffling Cream's hair happily.

Tails silently tightened a bolt into the Tornado, finishing yet another upgrade to the Tornado III. He sighed and threw his wrench to one side. He climbed into the cockpit and switched on the radio. The song was one of Coco's favourite Mercy Drive songs. This caused him to think about Coco more. He sighed as he entered deep thought. The thoughts of losing Fiona and Cosmo still lingered in his mind. A thought crawled into his mind about something like that happening to Coco.

'N-No...I can't let that happen...' he thought. Suddenly another thought sprang to his attention.

'With Fiona and Cosmo...both of them decided their fates....Fiona chose to go with Scourge....and Cosmo volunteered to sacrifice herself....' he thought, a tear swelling to his eye.

'N-No...Coco wouldn't....' he thought. He buried his face in his hands, trying to stop himself from crying. He lifted his head and breathed quick sigh of.

"I can't let Coco do anything like that..." he said out loud to himself.

"Yo Tails? You talkin' to y'self or somethin'?" A voice suddenly called.

"Eh? Crunch, is that you?" Tails called back.

"Yeah its me." Tails opened the door and hopped outside to see Crunch leaning against one of the supports, a set of head phones in his ears.

"Hey Crunch, what're you doing in here?" Tails asked.

"I just wanted to get some peace and quiet. I didn't know you were in here. Sorry.." Crunch apologized quickly.

"That's okay...I wasn't thinking of much...just about Coco." Tails sighed, sitting down on a steel bench. This seemed to spark Crunch's interest.

"About Coco?" he asked.

"Y-Yeah...." Tails admitted.

"I was talking to Crash about it a few days ago...I think...I think I'm in love with her..." Tails blushed as he said this.

"But I'm afraid to tell her..I've never had any success with my previous crushes."

Crunch nodded. "I'm surprised that Crash never told you about Tawna." he said. Tails lifted his head.

"Tawna?" he asked.

"Yep. The first time Crash ever saved the earth from Cortex, he wasn't doing it for the world, he was doing it for a female Bandicoot named Tawna. He had HUGE crush on her, so he tells me." Crunch explained.

"I'll ask Crash about that later, he'll have more info." Tails said.

"Okay, well I leave you in peace." Crunch said.

"No, you can stay if you want, don't let me put you off." Tails quickly said.

"Nah, it's fine, I gotta go anyways." Crunch shrugged

"Meh, okay, see you around Crunch." Tails hopped back into the Tornado 3 cockpit. He waited until Crunch had left the room. As the steel workshop door closed, Tails smashed his head on the steering wheel.

"Stupid, Stupid, Stupid!! Why did you tell him!?!" he growled at himself.

"It was meant to be a secret to yourself! Now you've told Crash _and_ Crunch!....My secrets gonna be out by tomorrow...."

Coco strolled through the lush green meadows of Mobius, the fresh spring air made her hair wave around. By her feet, Pura was hopping along beside her. They both got to the top of the hill, and Coco sat down, her legs stretched out. Pura happily jumped onto Coco's lap and purred. Coco giggled and stroked him. She sighed happily.

"Oh Tails...." she whispered to herself. She lay on her back, relaxed. Pura jumped off her lap and lay down beside Coco's face.

"Prrt?" he purred something in the form of the question. Coco seemed to know want he meant after long years of the two being best friends.

"Why do I like Tails so much? Well, where to begin? He's so cute...fuzzy...is a real gentleman, and he knows his way around technology like he's at one with it." Coco sighed blissfully.

"He's so kind all of the time, and when everyone is in danger, he never leaves anyone behind." She looked up into clouds.

"I just wish I wasn't the shy person I am...then I could tell him how I feel." She basked in the warm mobiun sun, enjoying the tranquility. After about 5 minutes, Pura lifted his head and looked around, confused. He could slight vibrations underneath his feet.

"Prr! Prrt!" He nudged Coco's cheek gently. Coco blinked her eyes open.

"What is it Pura?" she asked.

Tails didn't say a word as he closed the door to his workshop behind him. It accidentally slammed with a metallic thud. Tails sighed in annoyance.

"I gotta fix that..." he mumbled to himself. As he turned the corner, he came face to face with just about the last person he wanted to meet at the moment. Shadow.

"God...What is it Shadow?" he asked irritably. Shadow just stared right at him.

"She is up to no good. I can tell by the look in her eyes. She's knows I'm onto her." Shadow said grimly. Tails scowled at him.

"Maybe that's because she's scared of you following her around!" He shouted.

"If you just leave her alone she'll be fine!" Shadow was quite taken back by Tails' sudden outburst.

"Hmph, well don't come crying to me when she puts us in mortal danger." Shadow muttered. Tails snapped. He grabbed Shadow by his collar and held him close to his face.

"YOU LISTEN TO ME YOU BLACK AND RED BASTARD! SHE WILL NOT BETRAY US! NOT NOW, NOT EVER!!" The kitsune yelled. "SO GET ANY F***ED UP IDEA ABOUT OUT OF YOUR STUPED NUMSKULL BRAIN!" The corridor fell silent.

"Uh...Tails?" a voice said. Tails turned his head to see Amy standing there, looking a little freaked out. Tails was silent. He shoved Shadow to the floor angrily, and ran off, ashamed. Amy watched him leave, but then quickly went over to Shadow and helped him to his feet.

"What did you do to get him so angry?" She asked. Shadow rudely batted her hand away. "I was telling the truth, that's what. Coco will betray us, I can feel it." He stormed off, leaving Amy dazed and confused. She decided to follow Tails down the corridor.

"Hey Tails! Wait up! I want to talk to you!" She called out to him.

"L-Leave me alone!! Please!" Tails shouted. He ran into his room and slammed the door, then he locked it. Amy put a hand on the handle, but then found he had locked it.

"Tails...please tell me what's wrong..." she asked gently.

"I don't want to!..." Tails again shouted, but a lot quieter, almost in a sob.

"Listen...I'm trying to help you..." Amy said again in a whisper.

"I don't want help....just leave..." Tails sobbed. Amy didn't know what to say.

"Would you talk to Coco?" she asked. There was a long pause.

"Y-Yes...I would.." Tails finally said. "Okay, I'll go get her.." Amy said.

Pura was to his paws, looking around wildly, while Coco got to her knees. She could feel the ground vibrating silently. She could also hear a light humming noise.

"Okay, that's a strong Electromagnetic Pulse flowing around. And it's....great...in a circle around me..." She could hear the ground buzzing a bit. Suddenly a green ring appeared around her. It flashed, and several rats with iron wrenches in their hands. Coco shielded her eyes from the bright flash. She looked back. Another green light fizzed at exploded, revealing what appeared to be a man. Half of this...man's face was cybernetic, with a rocket sticking out of his skull. He had a trident like weapon in his hands, holding it above his head. There was an awkward silence. The man's eye was twitching. Coco tilted her head in confusion.

"I forgot what I was going to say!" finally cheered in triumph. Coco stifled a giggle.

"Oh yes! Kill the bandicoot! But if anyone makes a mess, I am not clearing it up!" suddenly roared. Coco quickly jumped into a karate position. '

I don't need Crash or anyone to take these goofs on!' she thought confidently.

'Then again...it would make me feel more secure if Tails was here...' The Ratnicians started advancing on her quickly. Coco smirked cockily. Once charged headstrong towards her, and Coco leveled him with a roundhouse Chuck Norris would be proud of. Other ratnicians charged, wrenches flailing above their heads. Rats were flying, as Coco could hold her own just as well as Crash and Tails. just watched in horror. Suddenly a communication device on his belt went off.

"Yo ! How's the kidnapping misson?!" Sonic asked.

"Not Good! Not Good at all!" wailed.

"God dammit...you're useless..." Cortex was heard groaning in the background.

"It's okay, you caught her slightly off guard right?" Sonic asked. nodded.

"I think so!" Back at a secondary base for Cortex, Sonic grinned evilly.

"Great...perfect...job well done ! Once you get the opportunity get your ass out of there." He instructed. nodded. Eventually, the ratnicians started fleeing in terror. Coco smirked, but sporting a small cut and a bruise. stared at her, trying to be intimidating. Coco, with a cute smirk on her face, chuckled a little.

"This is usually the part where you run off screaming." she whispered. stood stationary for a few seconds, before doing just that, his legs doing 50 to the dozen, screaming like a woman. Coco burst out laughing.

"Hey Coco!" she heard Amy's voice calling out. Amy ran up the hill.

"Phew, Im glad I found you...hey what happened to your face?" the hedgehog asked, wiping a bit of blood away from her lip.

"Meh, nothing much." She shrugged.

"Anyway, why do you want me?" she asked.

"Tails attacked Shadow out of frustration for some reason. I'm trying to talk to him about it, but he won't talk to me. He said he'd talk to you though." Amy explained. Coco seemed a little shocked at the fact that Tails attacked Shadow.

"I see, where is he?" She asked.

"He's barricaded himself in his room."

Coco nodded. "Right, I'll talk to him."


	19. A Kitsune's Rage

A Kitsune's Rage

Tails was sitting on his bed, his head looking down at his feet. He was still shell shocked about what he had done. The anger he felt at the time he attacked Shadow rivalled that of the anger he felt when Sonic backstabbed him at 1000 feet. Even this faint memory was enough to spark this very same anger.

'I-I will get you soon Sonic...' Tails thought, clenching his fist shut and his eyes screwing up. He could feel his fist shaking with sheer hatred. He suddenly felt an intense burning feeling flowing through his wrist. Tails shot his eyes open quickly. His whole hand was surrounded by a dark and burning aura. Tails yelped in surprise, sitting up and shaking his hand in fear. The black aura drifted off in to thin air. Tails breathed a sigh of relief and wiped a bit of sweat off of his forehead which had appeared from his sudden panic. He swung his feet over the side of his bed, looking down at his red and white shoes. These days he tightened the shoes with a small golden buckle. The buckle was meant to pay tribute to Sonic, and he started using it the morning Sonic betrayed him. Tails sighed again and closed his eyes, reflecting on his life. There was a sudden but gentle knock on his door. On the other side, Coco sighed.

"Tails?...Are you in there? It's me, Coco...can I talk to you? Amy said you were upset about something." She whispered softly. There was a brief pause, before there was an eventual clunk of the door unlocking and Tails opened the door. Coco smiled a little.

"Uhh...Can I talk to you?" She asked in a whisper. Tails nodded, and allowed Coco into his room, before closing the door again. The fox sat down on his bed and sighed. Coco sat next to him.

"Okay...Begin at the beginning and end at the end...what happened?" she asked softly, a caring tone in her voice, like a mother to her son. Tails sighed again and hung his head.

"Shadow...Shadow got inside my head...he scrambled my thoughts around...I lost control of my anger...so I attacked him...I know I shouldn't of..." He held his head in one hand, his elbow resting on his leg.

"I've never felt so angry..." The fox suddenly felt a hand on his own. Coco smiled a bit.

"Don't worry Tails...everyone gets angry at some time in their life...what was he getting in your head about?" she asked, rubbing his hand. Tails paused for a few moments, beginning to blush because of the Bandicoot's hand on his.

"...Y-You..." he finally whispered. Coco blinked and became confused.

"What? What about me?..." she asked.

"He..He kept saying you were a traitor...a fraud...a-a phoney...I-It was too much for me to take...I hate people saying anything negative about you...because you're an amazing person to know...I wouldn't want anything bad to happen to you.." At these words that Tails spoke, Coco blushed, a light pink tint appearing on her cheeks. Tails was blushing as well, beginning to rub the back of his head.

"Well...I'm quite frankly charmed by that...that you were protecting me...but you don't have to, I can live with it..." Coco smiled.

"But..." Tails began, but Coco silenced him with a finger to his lips.

"...I think you're kind of overworked...You've done nothing but work all week..." she instructed. "Please..." Tails blushed and nodded.

"Okay...I see your point..." he sighed.

"Is there anything else you want to talk about with me?" Coco asked. Tails paused, and seemed to be struggling with his conscious. He finally answered something he didn't want to say.

"No, I'm fine now...Thanks Coco..." he said. He knew in his mind he should of said it what he wanted to say, deep down in his heart. He sighed and lay down on his bed, his head resting on his pillow gently. Coco smiled and rubbed his shoulder supportively.

"I think you're an amazing person as well ..." she whispered. She suddenly leaned in and kissed the Kitsune on the cheek. Tails was stunned and his blush maximised, making his muzzle go bright crimson. He was too shocked to say anything else. Coco giggled, and began to walk out the door.

"Nighty Night Tails.." she smiled, before closing the door behind her. Tails sprang up in a seated position.

"Am...Am I dreaming?" he asked himself. He pinched his arm, and he was dumbfounded. He gently rested his hand on the cheek Coco had kissed.

"Unbelievable..." he whispered to himself.

* * *

The next morning, Crash and Crunch were in the lounge, talking with a semi recovered Knuckles. The echidna had a heavy cast around his right arm, a sling supporting it. In the rafters as usual, Carbon lay in his characteristic relaxed position.

"I was just ready to sock him one, then I get _my_ lights turned out, just in that millisecond of time...next thing I know I'm lying in the remains of a table with a broken arm." Knuckles had just finished explaining what happened in the main hall, where he was assaulted by a dark shadow. Despite only meeting Knuckles for a short time, the two bandicoots seemed to get on very well with the hot tempered echidna.

"...Probably the most painful thing I've ever experienced." Knuckles sighed, rubbing his casted arm.

"I've experienced my fair share of painful events..." Carbon said. Crash smirked a little.

"Yeah, like that time you got into a fight with Tails." he smiled.

"Well...yeah, kinda like that. The little guy got heart, I don't think he's going to lose a fight any time soon." Carbon chuckled. Soon after this conversation, s group consisting of Amy, Cream and Coco soon came in.

"Morning boys!" Amy announced in an extremely upbeat manner.

"Mornin' Ames!" Carbon grinned. Amy giggled and blushed. She loved that little nickname Carbon gave her.

"How's it going Knuckles? Your arm okay?" Coco asked.

"It's fine, little stings of pain when I try and move it, but apart from that it's fine. I owe you a lot Coco, you helped get my arm fixed up and everything. I am in debt to you." Knuckles beamed.

"Aww, it's okay, I don't need thanks, you being okay is a good enough reward for me." Coco chuckled. Soon enough, Tails came into the room, yawning a little. He sounded like he was humming a song to himself.

"Morning Tails." Coco smiled and blushed, still remembering what happened last night. Tails blushed as well, remembering it as well.

"Sleep well?" she asked innocently.

"Yeah, definitely." he smirked sheepishly. Crash looked between the two and grinned mockingly, but not in an insulting way. He shot a look at Coco as if to say 'Alright, what did you two get up to?' and Coco, as if talking to her big brother via her eyes, seemed to reply 'Oh nothing much.' Tails smiled and sat down on an sofa, and then Coco sat down next to him.

"How's your arm Knux?" Tails asked.

"Better than it was a few weeks ago." Knuckles nodded.

"So, has anyone got any plans for today?" Amy asked.

"Cause I know I haven't!" Everybody shrugged.

"Well, it's like 26 degrees Celsius outside, so I thought we could all chill in the shade for today." Crash said.

"Possibly." Amy nodded. Tails seemed to be thinking about something. He was silent for a long while.

"You seem in deep thought Tails" Carbon said. Tails looked up at him and nodded.

"Hey guys...can I tell you something kind of...weird...and a bit supernatural?..." he suddenly said, gaining every set of eyes in the room on him. Coco's eyes showed a hint of sudden confusion and worry. Tails suddenly felt he shouldn't be telling them this. He looked at the palm of his hand. He could still remember the mysterious black aura that had surrounded it last night...

* * *

Elsewhere, Cortex was sitting on a bank, looking at the remains of his blimp.

"Damn that bandicoot. He always has to stick his nose in where it doesn't belong." he seethed.

"Guh, save your complaints. for somebody who gives a damn. If you ask me, this is a great set up.." Sonic grinned evilly. Cortex got to his feet.

"I don't follow you hedgehog..." he said.

"It's quite simple. Since we've crashed, they're all thinking that we won't be around for a while, with no mode of transport or that kind of stuff." Sonic smirked. Cortex grinned.

"I'm catching on now. Thing is where are we going to plan our next attack?" The mad Scientist asked.

"You do have a secondary base right?" Sonic asked. Cortex thought for a while.

"There is the one that I used to access the Infinite Dimensions with..." he pondered out loud.

"Infinite Dimensions ya say?..." A malicious smile crept across The Blue Blur's face.

"I do believe I would be interested in such a device...Which way is this base?"

"It's just across the ocean...but my hover boards bust..." Cortex sighed.

"No probs, I can just Hydroplane there. You have those little teleporter thingamajiggies don't you?" Sonic said. Cortex's face lit up and nodded.

"Okay! If I give you the the teleporter exit, we can all teleport!" He smiled. He then seemed in deep thought.

"Hey Sonic, when we get there, do you think you could go somewhere to get some backup. I think I know a couple of people who would easily get inside Crash's head..." he then said. Sonic nodded and gave Cortex a thumbs up.

"Yeah, sure I'll do that! But right now I'm gonna run for this base. What does it look like?" He questioned.

"Oh you can't miss it, it's encased in ice at some points, and you'll see the big N on it." Cortex smiled.

"Right! I'll see you in a few minutes!" Sonic smirked, until he vanished in a flash, leaving a trail of smoke behind him. The smoke stayed there for a while. It creeped N Gin out. As he ran across the water at extreme speed, he had an evil smirk on his face.

"How stupid can this guy be? He'll just be another victim.." he laughed. Cortex was pacing up and down the beach about 5 seconds after he had gone. About 3 minutes later, Sonic's voice called down his communications device.

"Yo Braniac! I'm there! Awesome Place!" The Blue Blur grinned.

"W-Wait, he's there already?" Tiny piped up suddenly.

"It appears so, he does claim to be the fastest thing alive, and I think this just proved it." Cortex smirked. He began to reply to Sonic.

"Alright, we will join you in a few seconds! Move out you lot!" Cortex instructed everyone to tele port, and with that, they were at Cortex's base in a flash. Sonic was tapping his foot and looking at a pretend watch.

"Took your time. I ran around this whole Island 7.24 times and I'm not even winded!" He smiled.

"For you maybe.." Cortex sighed. He got a control pad and pressed a red button, and the entrance opened up. When they were inside, Cortex got to his main Control Panel.

"Right, what's the next plan?" He asked.

"Talk about beating about the bush..Okay, I know something about Dark Energy. It's a negative supernatural aura that affects certain people on the globe when they're over run by anger or depression. So what I'm thinking is that we should scan the globe for a source of Dark Energy. Sounds like a plan?" Sonic said.

"Sounds like a plan." Cortex replied. He typed a few commands into the giant controls.

* * *

Tails felt slightly uncomfortable with every set of eyes on him.

"What happened?" Coco asked gently.

"Yeah...What's up? You can tell us." Crash said, leaning forward in his seat.

"W-Well...it was last night...about 5 minutes before Coco came to talk to me...I was thinking about what I had done to Shadow...the things he said made me really angry...the same feeling when Sonic betrayed me..." Tails began. He looked around, and everyone kept looking at him. He stopped and looked uneasy.

"Go on..." A voice suddenly said from the doorway. All attention averted to Shadow, who had appeared at the doorway.

"Oh god not you again..." Carbon sighed. Shadow scowled at the luminous white bandicoot.

"You can shut your face for a start." He threatened. Carbon chuckled.

"That's not really physically possible, I can shut my mouth, but not my entire face!" he laughed. This sent a ripple of chuckles across the room.

"That's a good point!" Crash laughed. Shadow was slowly getting angry.

"This isn't about you and your petty little jokes! This is about this so called 'Freakish thing that happened to Fox-Boy over here." He growled. Tails sighed.

"I have a name you know!" he glared at the Black Hedgehog.

"A-Anyway...what happened last night?" Amy got the conversation back to what happened to Tails, not wanting a fight to spring up.

"Well, I was remembering when Sonic betrayed me, I felt that same anger...and when I looked at my hand...it was surrounded with black darkness...and it burned the way it would if it was in a fire..." Tails finished his story with a silence.

"That's it?" Shadow seemed extremely unimpressed.

"Huh, so what? It's just you getting angry and turning Black. We've already seen it with Sonic.." he sighed. Tails narrowed his eyes at Shadow, almost in hate.

"Seriously, when will you get a grip..." he growled. Shadow snapped his attention to Tails with ferocity.

"You need to respect your elders you brat! You know how badly I could kill you?" Shadow threatened.

"Uhh...Tails is right Shadow...you do need to wind down a little." Coco suddenly said. Shadow flared his eyes over her. He scarily started approaching her. Coco began to shrink back in her seat.

"Who the hell do you think you are to talk to me like that you bitch!" Shadow hissed. Tails then intervened.

"Hey! Give her some space! She was telling you a good piece of advice and I suggest you take it!" Tails snapped fiercely. Shadow glared at the twin tailed Kitsune.

"You don't know how long I've waited to do what I'm about to do..." The Black hedgehog whispered evilly. Out of completely nowhere, Shadow landed a huge and heavy punch on Tails' jaw. Tails hit the floor hard, holding his jaw in pain. Everyone immediately jumped out of their seats.

"Whoa Whoa WAOH! UNCALLED FOR SHADOW!" Crash shouted. Shadow completely ignored him, and grabbed Tails by his throat and threw him outside the room. Crash tried to rip Shadow's attention away from the injured fox, and for his efforts he received a sharp elbow to the face. While Shadow was busy, Coco rushed outside the room to help Tails into a seating position. Tails' vision was blurry, and he could feel blood dripping out of his mouth.

"T-Tails! A-Are you alright?" she gasped. Tails choked a little and spat out some blood.

"I-I'll live..." He mumbled.

"You'll wish you weren't in a second!" Shadow shouted suddenly. He had made it out of the lounge room and had barricaded the door shut.

"You leave him alone!" Crash shouted from the other side of the door, ramming at it with full force, hoping to break it down. Shadow approached Tails and Coco, Tails starting to crawl backward away from him. Coco stepped out in between the two.

"L-Leave him alone Shadow! He's done nothing to you!" She shouted.

"Move aside you bitch!" Shadow yelled. He smacked Coco aside with extreme force, sending her flying into the nearest wall. Tails' eyes shrank to pinholes. Shadow walked over to Tails and punted him in the face.

"I am going to kill you quickly, but still as painfully..." he growled sadistically. As he did this, Crash and Crunch were trying their best to break the door down. The doors hinges were showing signs of breaking. Tails' face was now a bloody and bruised mess, and it appeared that Shadow was taking great pleasure in inflicting pain onto the Fox. Coco stumbled to her feet, her eyes filling with ferocity. She grabbed Shadow around, and landed one hell of a slap across his face.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" She screamed. Shadow staggered back a little.

"...Okay then...I'll start on you instead!" Shadow bellowed, and with that, he had Coco pushed against a wall by her throat. Tails coughed and lifted his head up just in time to see Shadow punch Coco in the face. He gasped in horror. He felt a sudden anger.

'N-No! H-How dare he attack her...' he thought, his hand balling up into a fist, and shaking violently.

'H-He won't get away with this...' Tails cursed under his breath. As he tried making his way to his feet, his fist began glowing black, and the aura began to make it's way up his arm. Coco gasped and whimpered, blood beginning to flow from her forehead. Shadow grinned sadistically, and suddenly ripped her signature flower out of her hair and scrunched it up in his hand, pulling a few strands of hair out in the process, it was clear that Shadow had lost it. "You thought because you were a girl you could escape me...well you thought wrong..." he growled.

"_**And you WILL let her go NOW!**_" A sudden dark voice said. Shadow turned his head to see black aura shrouding round Tails' fur, the Kitsune's eyes going pure white.

"_**Otherwise, I swear to GOD I WILL KILL YOU!**_" Tails shouted in a deep and dark voice. Shadow let Coco go, and the Bandicoot dropped to the floor, gasping for breath.

"Oooh...Scary.." Shadow growled. He launched a punch at the Fox, but his hand was caught, and he was flung across the hallway at speed. Shadow leapt to his feet, but was met by a huge punch from the dark kitsune. The first strike drew blood, and a lot of it. Shadow held his nose and yelled in extreme pain. He tried to go for another punch, but Tails caught it. A loud crunching sound was heard, and Shadow yelled in pain. His hand was now in a broken state, but Tails never let go. He forced Shadow to the floor and clenched on his hand tighter, causing more bone crunching sounds. "**_I WILL NEVER. STOP. !_**_" _Tails roared_._ Suddenly, Crash and Crunch succeeded in batting the door down.

"Tails! Where are..." Crash began, and then saw Dark Tails crushing Shadows hand.

"Tails! What're you...?" he gasped. He then saw Coco on the ground.

"C-Coco!" he choked, running over to her.

"A-Are you..okay?" He asked. Coco shook her head to cure her blurry vision.

"I-I'll live...b-but please stop Tails! He's gone i-insane!" she gasped. Crash nodded and ran over to Tails, grabbed him and pulled him away from his victim.

"Tails that's enough!" He shouted. Tails suddenly froze. The blackness of his fur suddenly faded, and his light sea blue eyes were once again visible. He suddenly fainted, falling backwards and hitting the floor.

"Tails!" Coco whimpered rushing over to him. Tails was barely conscious and had his eyes open only a little.

"I-It...feels like...I'm burning...too hot..." he panted in pain. He then lost consciousness.

"Quick! Get him to the Medical Facility! His fur feels like it's on fire!" Coco ordered. Shadow was still writhing around in pain. Carbon stood over him, his eyes not showing even a trace of sympathy.

"I think we better get Shadow there as well..."

* * *

Back at Cortex's base, the Dark Energy scanner was going off the charts.

"Sonic! We've found an Incredible strong source!" Cortex called out. Sonic rushed to the screen and looked at it.

"Hey...that's where Tails and that lot live..." he grinned.

"Zoom in closer, what's the source?" he instructed. The camera moved in, revealing Tails attacking Shadow, but then fainting. A smirk appeared on the Hedgehogs face.

"We may of hit our Bulls Eye Brainiac..."


	20. Coping with Darkness

Coping With Darkness

A small heart monitor made small beeps and boops in a regular heart beat pattern. Tails lay in a hospital bed, some wires attached to his chest, an oxygen mask over his mouth. There was also an Ice Pack resting on his head. Passing out due to the dark energy that possessed him proved to have more physical effects on his body than everyone first thought. Tails was breathing gently, slightly wheezing between breaths. Coco was sitting beside his bed, holding the Fox's hand, extremely worried. She was sporting a bruise of her chin, a plaster on her cheek, and red grip marks on her throat. Crash, who was just as worried as his sister, walked behind Coco and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Coco, you've been with him for a whole hour...give the little guy some privacy..." He whispered.

"B-But...I don't want to..he means everything to me...I don't want to leave him all alone..." Coco whined sadly.

"If...anything happens to him...I want to be there with him..." Crash could see small tears forming in her eyes. He slowly gave in.

"Okay...it's your choice..." he sighed. As he went to leave the room, he turned back to face Coco.

"I'm sorry Coco..."

When he left the room, he went into deep thought about the feelings shared between his sister and who was now his best friend. When they first showed signs of it, himself and Amy saw it as nothing more than a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship, but as time went on and arrived at this very moment, Crash realised that it was deeper than just that. He sighed and walked into the lounge, which was completely empty for once. The only sounds were a ticking of a clock and the crackling fireplace. Crash sat down in an arm chair and rested his head in one hand. It was obvious to see from first glances that he was stressed. All he wanted was what was best for Tails and Coco. He felt that him and Amy's mockings had been a bit too harsh. He sighed and laid back in the arm chair. He sat there in deep thought and in silence for at least 10 minutes.

In another room of the Medical Facility, Amy and Cream were helping Shadow and his broken hand. Shadow kept shouting at them to leave him alone, but Amy and Cream were both very tolerant of Shadow's rants, so they completely ignored him.

"I'm gonna kill the motherfucking fox..." he growled.

"You brought it on yourself Shadow." Amy sighed.

"'Tis True Shad, you attacked him, he was just retaliating." Carbon shrugged.

"Shut the fuck up! He broke my god damn hand!" Shadow snapped at Carbon, trying to lunge forward at The Snow White Bandicoot, but Amy had taken the liberty of strapping his waist and good arm to the bed with clamps. Carbon rolled his eyes.

"You REALLY need to get a lid on that temper of yours Shad...Later!" he sighed, walking out the door. Shadow growled and lay back down on the bed, still filled with anger. As he went out, Carbon passed by Coco and the Unconscious Tails. He stopped and walked over to them.

"You okay Coco?" He asked gently. Coco slowly nodded.

"I-I'm fine..." she whispered.

"What about Tails?.." Coco sighed.

"H-He's recovering...slowly..." she replied sadly. Carbon gently rubbed her shoulder.

"He'll be okay...I promise.." he said. Coco swept some tears away from her eyes.

"I do hope so..." she whimpered. Carbon leant down and gave her a hug, which Coco hugged him back.

"So, now we have a target, Can I leave it to you to retrieve him?" Sonic asked. Cortex nodded.

"Sure I can, I need a bit more fire power than just Ratnicians though." he said. Sonic was thinking. He still had someone captive in his closet back home. He also had two Chaos Emeralds there as well.

"I'm going to have to take a chance. I need to grab some stuff from that house...I really can't be detected, could you send some people to watch my back and back me up if flop?" he requested. Cortex nodded.

"Sure! If it'll help us out, then go for it!" he grinned evilly.

"It doesn't even have to be that useful, if it can cause a good distraction, then I'm fine with it." Sonic said, tightening his shoes.

"Oh no! Only the best of my elite force will do!" Cortex grinned. He presed a button on his control pad, which now acted like an intercom.

"Tropy! Report to the Ice Lab, we require your assistance!" Cortex said. Sonic raised an eyebrow.

"Who's this Tropy dude then?" he asked, interested.

"One of my finest Recruits, a true legendary enemy in Crash's mind." Cortex said in a boastful manner, standing up straight in a proud manner. It a brilliant blue flash, a tall man with blue skin appeared in front of the two. His chest and abdominal area was made up of a large engine with a large Clock in the middle of his chest. There were some exhaust pipes coming out of his back. He had an odd helmet on, and in his robotic hands he held what seemed to be a giant Tuning Fork.

"At your service Dr Cortex." The being uttered in a polished accent.

"Ahh Tropy. I'd like you to meet Sonic the Hedgehog, the fastest being on this planet." Cortex beamed. N Tropy looked down at Sonic.

"Pleasure to meet you Sonic, I have heard of you many a time." he smiled.

"Glad ta meet ya to Trops." Sonic grinned, offering a hand shake, which Tropy accepted.

"Okay N Tropy, you have an important job today. Sonic has to retrieve a few things from his old home. However, out main enemies currently inhabit this place. If Sonic were to be detected, I hate to think what would happen. If he is to be discovered, you need to keep him covered to help him escape." Cortex explained.

"Hmm, I suppose It starts minimal with all enemies we've had. I accept this mission. Lead the way Sonic." Tropy nodded. Sonic grinned.

"Hope you can speed!" Sonic grinned.

"I can time travel, I can slow you down in an instant! Let's go!" Tropy boasted.

Tails groggily opened his eyes, but he woke up to a black void.

"Wh-Where am I?..." he whispered to himself. His voice echoed around the blackness.

"Am..Am I in a dream?.." he asked himself. He held his arms in pain.

"It still feels like I'm burning..." He shook his head, and tried to stand up.

"What's going on?...I've never been in a dream that's been so...real..." Tails was still confused.

"Tails...Tails!..." A voice was echoing around the place.

"W-Who's there?" The fox called out, a little frightened. Tails turned around to see a black hedgehog, his appearance extremely similar to Shadow's, except his fur was a tinted grey, and his quills had a navy blue colour.

"Who are you? What're you doing here?" Tails immediately fired questions his way.

"That doesn't matter...I want to know where this dark being within you came from..." the hedgehog said.

"I'm not telling you anything until you tell me who YOU ARE!" Tails suddenly shouted, immediately after grabbing his head in pain and falling down to his knees. A painful feeling had rushed through his head.

"That's exactly what I want to talk to you about. Your hidden anger is gradually getting the better of you...what happened to Shadow...it could have been anyone Tails...you could of snapped at any moment...It could have been Crash you attacked, It could of been Amy...It could have been Coco..." The hedgehog sneered. Tails was fear stricken. The very thought of him harming Coco sent scared shivers down his spine.

"Wh-Who are you?...W-Why are you doing this to me?..." He whispered. The hedgehog was beginning to vanish into the darkness.

"My name is Mephilis...and I am only protecting those around you...you could bring suffering to every being alive on this planet. Behold...what could happen in a years time if you don't prevent yourself..." Mephilis echoed, and vanished. Tails grabbed his head in pain. Frightening images invaded his mind, flames and darkness flooded the town of Mobius, people were suffering at every corner.

"N-No! No No No! That would never happen! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" Tails screamed.

In the real world, Tails' heart monitor suddenly lit up with activity. Coco was immediately alarmed.

"Something's happening! Someone Help!" She quickly shouted out. Amy quickly came to attention, running into the room.

"My god! What the heck his happening? His heart Monitors off the scale! We need to wake him up!" Amy gasped. However, almost exactly after she said that, Tails' eyes sprang open. He sharply sat up with a loud yelp.

"Tails!" Coco gasped. Tails sat there, breathing heavily, pouring with sweat.

"Tails are you okay?..." Amy asked. Tails lay back down on his bed,

"I'm okay now...nightmare...that's all..." he panted.

"It's okay Tails...you're safe...everything's fine..." Coco whispered. Tails nodded, gulping air a little.

"Coco...what happened to me?...I...I can't remember...all I can remember was that Shadow hurt you...but then it went black for me..." he whispered. Coco looked uneasy.

"You...your fur went black and...you attacked Shadow...and..and broke his hand." She whispered. Tails seemed silent for a while. He took off the oxygen mask around his mouth.

"I feel fine now by the way...I think I can walk..." He said.

"You Sure? You just woke up though." Amy asked, concerned.

"I don't feel like there's anything wrong with me...I feel like I've woken up on a typical Monday morning..." Tails mumbled. He swung his feet over the side of the bed, removing the wires from his chest. Coco helped him to his feet. Tails smiled. Coco still had trust in him, even after his frightening display of violence towards Shadow.

"You sure you can walk on your own?" She asked, still a little worried.

"Yes...I'm sure..." Tails nodded. He could as well, almost as if nothing had happened, as if he'd woken up on a Monday Morning like he had said. Coco smiled and gave him a big hug.

"I'm glad you're okay..." she whispered. Tails hugged her back. He didn't make a sound though. He still had that dream in his mind.

'Mephilis...who was he? Where'd he come from...why me?...' he was thinking. He sighed and hung his head a little. This Mephilis was right...he could of snapped at any moment and hurt anyone. He needed time to think about what to do, on his own. Coco went into the lounge, where Crash was.

"Hey Crash, Tails' is awake.." she smiled. Crash lifted his head up.

"That's good, how is he?" he asked.

"He woke up from a nightmare, so he seems a little shaky, and he's not talking much." Coco sighed.

"I can understand that." Crash nodded. About 2 hours later, the evening sun was vanishing beneath the hills, and the dark night was taking over. Coco was looking for Tails, and found him about to go out the front door.

"Tails? Where are you going?" she asked, a little confused and worried.

"I'm going for a walk...I have some personal things to think about...alone.." Tails sighed. Coco nodded slowly.

"Okay...your choice I guess...You can talk to me about anything that's worrying you.."

"I know...but sometimes I like to keep some stuff private to myself.." Tails sighed. Coco sighed and nodded. "Okay..."

Tails walked along the darkened, moon lighted hills of Mobius. He sat down at the very top of a hill. He had a bag with him. He took it off and pulled out a small golden object. It was a necklace kind of thing. He was currently in the process of carving it into a heart shape locket. He was making it for Coco. He was hoping to use it to help him tell her how he felt about her. He had almost finished it. He also came out all along to think about Mephilis and what he had said. Mephilis' very appearance had shaken his mind around. He stopped work on the locket for a while. He looked down at the ground, and then at the city infront of him.

'In a years time...I would be destrying this town?...That can't be true..I would never do that...' Tails thought. His looked at his hand, the one that broke Shadow's hand.

'Or...Or would I?..' he shook his head.

"N-no! I wouldn't! I refuse to believe that!" He said out loud. He couldn't focus on two things at once, About Coco and About Mephilis. He looked over to his left. What he saw reverted his attention to the matter about Coco. There was a beautiful flower, similar to the one Coco used to have in her hair before Shadow ripped it out, except it was a snow white. He reached over and picked it up. He smiled a little. It was a perfect gift for Coco to tell her how he felt about her. Tails then sighed. He still felt incredibly shy about telling her. Unbeknownst to him though, someone was watching him in the shadows.

"So Sonic, where are we heading?" Tropy asked, appearing as a light blue transparent ghost, racing alongside Sonic as the two sped along fields after fields.

"We're heading to my old home. I hung out there and used it as my base of operations, before I was...kinda found out about my intentions. I have a lot of stuff there that I left behind. I just hope no one went in and vandalized it." The blue blur replied.

"So, even after all the times you saved the world from tyranny, you wish ill upon the world yourself?" Tropy questioned. Sonic snorted.

"Hell no! I don't wish ill upon the world, I just wish ill upon all my...'friends'...constantly getting in my way! I was just fine on my own!" He snarled.

"I see." Tropy nodded. Sonic suddenly screeched to a halt.

"Wait...I sense something...something dark..." he whispered. He looked over to his left. He saw a hedgehog, almost identical to Shadow.

"Mephilis..." he growled. Mephilis turned his head toward Sonic, as he was previously focused on a certain two tailed fox, quite far away from the trees he was near.

"What're you doing here you Inferior scum?" he growled.

"What're _you_ doing here? Didn't I erase you from time?" Sonic demanded.

"My question is, why, after ridding the world of evil countless times, do you now choose to side with evil forces?" The dark hedgehog snarled.

"Why do you call me inferior? I've defeated so many world threats!" Sonic growled.

"I think you need to remember Sonic, I am the only one of those threats to kill you." Mephilis smirked confidently, crossing his arms. Sonic could find the words to reply.

"I..That...god damn you.." Sonic felt slightly defeated verbally.

"C'mon Sonic, we don't have time for this.." Tropy sighed. Sonic nodded.

"Yeah, I guess so...but I've got my eye on you Mephilis..." he growled. Tropy and Sonic quickly sped off. Mehpilis rolled his eyes, and reverted his attention to Tails. Sonic and Tropy soon came to the house.

"Right Trops, switch to Stealth." Sonic whispered. Tropy nodded, slowly his pace down. Sonic crept around the side of the building, immediately ducking down when he saw Cream walk past a window. He thought it best to crawl the rest of the way. They soon came to the window leading to Sonic's room.

"Okay. We need to get through this window _quietly_..." Sonic whispered. He gently pushed the window upwards and locked it in that position. He climbed in quietly. He was surprised at his own stealth. He walked over to his drawers and opened on, taking out the Yellow and Blue Chaos Emeralds. He looked over at his closet.

"Tropy...I'm gonna need some serious help containing this monster that I have imprisoned..." The Blur Blur whispered. Tropy nodded. Sonic approached his closet, resting his hand on the knob.

"3...2...1..." he held his breath, quickly opening the door. His heart stopped. There was nothing but chains there.

"N-No...oh god no..." he gasped. He crouched down. Near the chains were some globs of a watery mass.

"We're in deep shit now..." Sonic whispered to himself.

"What's wrong?" Tropy whispered. Sonic shook his head.

"Nothing...I've got what I needed...let's go..."

Coco was worried about Tails all alone outside. She decided to go and find him. She grabbed her shoes and her coat, as since it was night time, it was cold outside. She walked around the fields looking for him.

"Tails? Tails where are you?" she called out. Tails didn't hear her. He was busy working on the locket and looking at the flower. Coco eventually found him. She saw him doing something practical. She quietly walked up behind him and crouched down to see what he had.

"Heya Tails, what ya doing?" She smiled. Tails jumped.

"Eep!" he quickly hid the locket and the flower in his bag.

"Oh...hi Coco..." He laughed nervously.

"What were you making?" Coco giggled, sitting beside him.

"Oh..i-it's nothing..." Tails blushed a little, rubbing the back of his head. He then suddenly sighed.

"Actually...there is one thing that I want to give you..." he whispered shyly.

"Oh? Really?" Coco blushed a little. Tails nodded. He carefully reached into his bag and pulled out the snow white flower.

"I..I thought you'd like this..." He smiled, turning his head away bashfully, but holding the flower towards Coco.

"Oh my..." Coco's blush went to maximum level.

"Tails...i-it's beautiful..." She carefully took the flower from his hand.

"Thank you..." She got a clip from her pocket and clipped it into her hair.

"It's just what I needed.." She shuffled near to the fox and hugged him. Tails smiled and his cheeks went a deep crimson.

"Y-Your welcome..." he smiled, hugging her back. Coco rested her head on his shoulder.

'Should I tell him?...C'mon Coco, you can tell him! Pull yourself together and just tell him!' she thought to herself.

"U-Uhh...Tails?...I..I really need to tell you something important..." She began shyly, pulling out of the hug for a brief while, looking into Tails' sea blue eyes. Tails' heart skipped a beat.

'Is she going to say it? No..she's not..is she?...' he thought, finding himself looking back into Coco's emerald green eyes. Coco looked down at the ground, embarrassed.

"Go on...say it..." Tails whispered.

"I.." Coco lifted her head up.

"I lov-"

"Okay! That's it I can't take it anymore!" A voice came from the trees, the two turned their heads towards Mephilis, who was walking towards you. Tails' eyes widened in fear, while Coco was confused and angry.

"Who are you? You're invading our privacy!" she snarled.

"C-Coco...he...he's the person from my nightmare!..." Tails whimpered, shuffling away from him a bit. Coco looked back at him, concerned. She turned her attention back to Mephilis.

"Listen buster, I don't know what you've been doing to Tails, but you have no right to invade our time together!" She glared at the Hedgehog. Mephilis snorted.

"You are not my primary concern girl..." he looked at Tails.

"Your little boyfriend here will cause the destruction of everything you know and love." Coco looked surprised.

"Tails? Tails wouldn't harm anyone! He would only if he was threatening something dear to him." she sneered at Mephilis. Mephilis ignored her, and walked towards Tails.

"Are you listening? Leave us alone! We are doing no harm to you!" Coco wailed.

"But if this child is to live, our whole world will collapse in on itself, and all humanity will cease to exist." Mephilis snapped. He suddenly lunged a fist forward at Tails, which Tails immediately rolled out of the way and rolled to his feet. Mephilis tried to strike again, to no avail.

"Leave him alone you madman!" Coco shouted. She tried grabbing Mephilis, but Tails quickly grabbed hold of her and pulled her away from the scene. "S-Stay out of this! I don't want you to get hurt again!" He instructed, panicking. Coco was a little scared, but nodded, understanding where Tails was coming from. Tails quickly hugged her, before turned back to Mephilis.

"L-Listen Mephilis...M-maybe we can negotiate!" he stammered.

"About what? You destroying this planet!" Mephilis growled, swiping at Tails again, with another miss.

"N-No! I won't destroy this planet! I would never do something like that!" Tails gasped, moving quickly to avoid swipes.

"Prophecies never lie! You shall end all! So I'll end you first!" A sudden powerful swipe sent Tails flying.

"Tails, No!" Coco gasped. Tails hit a tree and slumped down. He tried struggling to his feet, but Mephilis grabbed his throat and held him against the tree. Coco wanted to get involved, but she was too scared about what Mephilis would do.

As this happened, Sonic ad Tropy were racing back. Sonic looked left to see if Mephilis was still where he was last time they met. He suddenly screeched to a halt. Tropy made a quick stop.

"Sonic! What're you doing! We need to go!" he hissed. Sonic's eyes were fixed on Mehpilis choking Tails. He wanted to run off with Tropy, but he could find himself moving. He groaned a bit and held his head.

"Sonic! Pull yourself together!" Tropy growled.

"I...Can't...I need to.." Sonic gasped. In a flash, he suddenly charged at Mephilis, smashing him in the face and knocking his grip away from Tails. Mephilis was confused. The darkness of night disguised Sonic's face. Tails stumbled back, and Coco helped him to regain balance. Sonic continued to beat the living daylights out of Mephilis.

"What...What is this?" Mephilis yelled, blood flowing from his forehead. He fell to the ground and Sonic grabbed him.

"You leave him alone, or I'll smack some sense into you. Now skedaddle..." he growled. Mephilis nodded and vanished into the dark. Tails and Coco looked on in awe at the shadowy saviour.

"Th-Thanks...wh-who are you?.." Coco asked. Sonic stayed silent, walking past the two. Tail reached into his bag and grabbed a flashlight. He cliked it on and shone it over his saviour. All three of them froze.

"SONIC?" Coco and Tails exclaimed. Sonic cringed a bit. Tails took a small step forward.

"Sonic..What're you..." he began, but Sonic suddenly sped off before he could finish. Tropy quickly followed suite. Tails and Coco were left confused in the dark

**AUTHOR NOTE**

I would like to thank Jeku for his suggestion for N Tropy and Mephilis appear in the story. If Mephilis' appearance make no sense in terms of canon, I never played Sonic 06, and don't really want to, so Im not very informed on Mephilis' well being in canon.


	21. The New Threat

The New Threat

Tails just stood there in shock as Sonic ran off into the shadows. He raised a hand and wiped some blood from his nose. Coco quickly ran to him. "You okay?..." she asked. Tails nodded.

"Yeah...I-I'm fine...just a nosebleed that's all, apart from that I'm good." he said. Coco smiled and hugged him.

"I glad about that." she sighed sweetly. Tails smiled and hugged her back.

"Uh, Coco? You were about to say some thing...I low or something?" Tails asked suddenly. Coco froze, and a huge blush appeared on her cheeks. She rested her cheek on Tails' shoulder.

"Oh...I-It's nothing..." she smiled.

"Oh Come on...It had to be something important...Everything you say is important to me." Tails said. Coco blinked and looked up at him.

"You mean that?.." she asked.

"I mean every word I ever say, and I've always done that, all my life I've told everyone what I think." Tails nodded. Coco blushed and looked down at her feet.

'Geez..what do I say?..' she thought, her muzzle becoming quite warm embarrassment. She rubbed the back of her head a little.

"I...I don't really want to say right now...I don't think I'm ready yet..." she sighed.

'Ready? Ready For what?' Tails thought suddenly. He seemed a little downhearted that she didn't tell him, but knew she didn't want to say whatever it was. Coco looked a little over the cliff they were on.

"Wow...look at the view..." she smiled. Tails looked where she was looking. The full moon was casting it's simmering light blue glow over the city. Only some lights were on in Station Square. Coco sat her self down cross-legged. On the cliff side. Tails sat down next to her, his feet over the edge.

"Do you always see a site like this every time you come up here?" the Blonde Bandicoot asked. Tails nodded.

"Yep, every time I get stressed, I come out here every night and just relax." He smiled.

"But I need to say, the sight I saw at your place at night was something amazing...I went out on the beach the night I woke up there, and just wow...it was...it was probably the second most beautiful thing I've ever seen.." Coco looked at him, an eyebrow raised.

"What's the first most beautiful thing?" She asked. Tails suddenly blushed.

"Uhh..." he mumbled. Coco suddenly blinked in surprise.

"Wait...don't tell me..." she suddenly said. Tails froze and his blush maximised.

"I-It's me isn't it?..." Coco whispered, blushing hard. There was a awkward silence.

"Y-Yes...Yes it is Coco..." Tails admitted. Coco was stunned.

"I..I..I really don't know what to say...First the flower...now this..." she smiled. She edged a bit closer to Tails, and curled her hand round his, gripping it tightly. Tails looked over at her, smiling sheepishly.

"I am just lost for words..." Coco giggled. She rested the side of her head on Tails' shoulder. Her eyes were lost in the starry sky. She then yawned.

"Man...I'm getting tired..." she mumbled.

"You wanna go back home?.." Tails asked. Coco nodded. Tails grabbed his bag and slung it over his shoulders. He then picked Coco up in his arms, causing a little giggle. Tails blushed a lot. Should he tell her? He decided against it. He just couldn't muster up the strength. Tails soon came to their house. Most of the people in the house had fallen asleep. Tails quickly opened the door and took Coco to her room. She laid Coco down into her bed. Coco sighed happily and got comfortable.

"Thanks...Night.." she smiled, resting her head on the pillow. Tails smiled warmly.

"Yeah...night..." he whispered. He went to turn off her light, and after he did, he had a sudden Idea. He sighed. He walked gently walked over to her bed, knelt down, and gently kissed her cheek. Coco suddenly opened her eyes, but it was pitch black.

"Whu?.." she mumbled. Tails smirked, and then silently walked out. Coco sat there, stunned.

Tails walked through the corridors of the multi roomed house, that he, Sonic, Amy and everyone else had helped build. He always felt proud of the house, as he did with everything he built. However, as he neared his he felt a little faint. He held his head in slight pain. He stumbled a little and leant against the wall. He began breathing quite heavily. His eyes sight was fogging up with dark mist.

"Whu...Wh-Whu's happening?..." he moaned. His eyes and head felt like there were burning up. He could feel his brain pulsing, and his heart thumping.

"Grrrk..." he groaned. He crashed to his knees with quite a loud thump. He grabbed his head with both hands, feeling in great pain. A dark aura was starting to slightly form around his fingertips and head. Just around the country, Shadow had sneaked out of his medical facility, his hand was covered in a strong cast.

"Goddamn it...When I get that Fox...I'll...I'll frikken..." he sighed, holding his casted hand. He then heard a thump.

"Hmm? Is everyone okay over there?" he called out quietly. He quickly rushed over round the corner, to see Tails suffering there. Tails was obviously in a lot of pain. The kitsune mustered enough will to look up.

"Sh-Shadow...h-help me..." He whimpered. Shadow just stared at him for a minute. Tails felt his heart sink.

"Y-You're n-not...going to..help me are you?..." he whispered. He hung his head, shivering violently. Shadow was fighting with his inner turmoil. Should he finish Tails? Or help him? He shook his head. He rushed over to Tails and put his arm over his own head.

"To your feet Soldier." he whispered. Shadow pulled Tails to his feet and supported him. Tails looked at the black hedgehog.

"Th-thanks...I..I think...it's..going away..n-now...but it still hurts.." Tails panted. Shadow suddenly got out a chaos emerald.

"Breath Tails...just calm and breath." He muttered. Trails nodded and breathed deeply. He could feel the emeralds aura seep into his lungs. He was beginning to feel better. He seemed to be inhaling some healing power of the Emerald.

"Haaa...haa...Thanks Shadow...I owe you big time..." he smiled weakly. Shadow sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Don't mention it.." he grumbled.

"Seriously...don't...I don't want people thinking I'm turning soft..." he made sure Tails was okay to stand on his own, and then walked off. Tails was left there, wondering what came over him.

'Things have been getting weird recently...I think I'm succumbing to the weirdness..' he thought as he stumbled to his room.

The next few days went without any bizarre happenings, however, Cortex had twigged that something was up with Sonic. Recently, he had a lot of moments where he would stumble and hold his head in pain. One day when he did it again, Cortex knew it was the last straw, and started to confront him about it.

"Okay Sonic, what's up with you? You've been stumbling like this all week!" the scientist growled. Sonic groaned and held his head in pain.

"I...I don't know...it hurts...inside my head...it gets worse every time.." he uttered out. He suddenly collapsed on the floor.

"Sonic? Hey N Gin! We got a problem here! Help me out!" Cortex called out. Some time later, Sonic woke up on some sort of medical bed. He groaned and sat up.

"Uhh..god..." he mumbled. He looked to one side. He saw Cortex near a huge control panel, his back to him.

"Y-Yo Cortex? What just happened? Why did I just suddenly pass out?" Sonic demanded. Cortex sighed. He was getting a little irritated by Sonic's demanding and egotistical attitude.

"Listen, you started stumbling around and then collapsed. I don't know what happened, we've been doing tests on your mental health and we found nothing..." he explained.

"Since when did I stumble? I don't remember that. You'd think I'd remember something like that." Sonic said. At this Cortex froze.

"You don't remember?" he asked. Sonic shook his head.

"Nope, Nein, Non, Nincs, Нет." he replied. Cortex scratched his head, and then jotted this down on a piece of paper.

'Very odd..'

The next morning, Tails groaned a little and turned over in his bed. His digital alarm clock read 6:00 am. The Kitsune sighed, sitting up in bed. His head was thumping with pain. He grabbed a small bedside mirror to check his complexion. He was okay, only a little pale. He sighed. He put the mirror back. He quietly flicked the radio on. The song that was currently playing was "Simple Plan-I'm Just a Kid." He stopped to listen to the song. Even when the song finished, Tails still had it in his head. The song had seemed to sum up his feelings entirely. He was just a kid. And what he was going through could be described as nightmare...but at the same time, when Coco and Crash were around, it was like a very good dream. They were the best friends he had ever had. He smiled a little and turned the radio off. Since it was still quite early in the morning, he lay down in his bed again. He kept his eyes open though. He stopped to think about Sonic. What suddenly caused his sudden attitude change? Why did he suddenly turn his back on those that helped him through his biggest problems. He suddenly heard a few loud beeps and boops. The sound was coming from his control room.

"Hmm? Who could that be at this time?" He mumbled to himself. He gout out bed and tied his shoes and gloves on. He quickly arrived at the Control room, where the beeps and whirs were at their loudest. The black leather spinning chair was facing toward the panel. Lots of things were up on the multiple screens.

"Hello?" Tails asked quietly. The boops stopped, and the chair swivelled round.

"Morning Tails!" Coco smiled, giggling a little.

"You use this thing all the time, so I thought 'If Tails can do it with ease, it should be the same for me', seeing as we both have the same Brain Capacity." Tails grinned.

"I see. So, what have been working on?" he asked.

"I found some Readings that matched that of the same of the Chaos Emerald we found in that cave a few weeks back. Speaking of which, how's your leg?" Coco asked.

"It's fine, a little achy at times, but it definitely better." The fox smiled. He thought about telling her what happened last night, but didn't want to scare her.

"So, where are the reading's emanating from?" he asked.

"Luckily nowhere potentially dangerous. It's just in the grassy plains somewhere just near the market." The blonde bandicoot grinned. She noticed a small look of worry on Tails' face.

"Tails, what's wrong?.." she asked.

"I dunno...it's just every time we go out, something tries to kill us..dangerous place or not.." Tails sighed. Coco was uneasy.

"I guess. Hey, maybe we could get Crash to come with us! He's got a quick eye and can probably fend a lot of stuff off." she suggested. Tails smiled, his twin tails beginning to swish happily.

"Somebody mention me?" Crash himself suddenly appeared at the doorway. Coco swivelled round.

"Morning Bro!" Coco beamed.

"Why are you up so early?" Tails smiled.

"Oh, Me and Coco usually get up at this time back at Wumpa Island, Coco likes to play around with her electronic gizmos, and I go around looking for Crystals. But seeing that there are no Crystals around here that I know of, I just go for a walk now. Amazing Scenery!" Crash smiled.

"So, watcha want me for?" he asked.

"Well, we found a location of another Chaos Emerald, but Tails is getting a little cautious about what's gonna happen when we go out to get it, so did you think you could help us find it?" Coco explained and asked. "Yeah, Sure!" Crash smiled. "When do we set off?" Tails shrugged. "I would grab some breakfast first, and maybe wait until after lunch." He suggested. "Sounds reasonably, then we could let everyone know where we are."

In Cortex's base, N Gin was watching the security cameras over a school he looked after, that taught Brat Girls evil ways. The Rocket Head drummed his fingers on the steel board.

"Doooomy doomy dooom..." he sighed. Unbeknownst to him, something was slithering in the industrial equipment behind him. Whatever it was moved quickly, making a liquidy slush noise. N Gin swivelled round in his chair.

"Eh? Sonic? Doctor Cortex?...Tiny?..." N Gin listed through all the possibilities. There was silence. N Gin shivered a bit, and turned back around. There was more movement, slithering along the floor like a snake. It was like water, with two yellow glowing eyes. N Gin waited for a while and then spun round swiftly.

"Aha!...Whu?..." He hoped to catch whoever was behind off guard, but before he did, the liquid mass had sunken into the floor. N Gin shimmied his eyes around the room. Unaware of the activity's behind him, the strange liquid began crawling onto his back. N Gin froze, cold liquid slithering around his shoulder. His eyes bogged out of his skull as he looked on his shoulder. Cortex was on a computer, trying to figure out what was up with Sonic, the Blue Blur was lying on a table, looking up at a Magazine he was reading. There was an ear piercing scream throughout the base, making Sonic jolt and rip his magazine in half.

"The Hell?" Sonic shouted. Cortex shivered.

"That sounded like N Gin!" The two ran into the CCTV room, to see N Gin shivering manically on the floor.

"Heehee...dooomy doom..." N Gin giggled, a little crazy. Sonic ran over to N gin and turned him onto his back.

"N Gin! Dude! What happened up here?" He asked, worried for his...'friend'. N Gin was rocking back and forth like a crazy man.

"Heehee...blue liquid thing...doomy doom...yellow eyes..." Sonic froze to the spot.

"Blue Liquid? Yellow Eyes?...Jesus H. Christ..." he mumbled.

"What's wrong Sonic?" Cortex asked hesitantly.

"Watch your back from now on...just to be safe..." Sonic said.

"Umm...okay, but listen, more important news, I need you to go and fetch a very important agent of mine. He was done exceedingly well against Crash in past years, I need you to go get him, so that we can chop down one of their offences..." Cortex began, until he was cut off by Sonic.

"I'll go get your stinking agent, but this is SERIOUS! There is a monster creeping around here! Now where can I find this guy?" Sonic shouted Cortex was a little taken back by this.

"I can set you some co-ordinates on a tracker, that should help you out."

Crash took a huge bite of his sandwich, munching on it happily, sitting in a laid back position.

"Mmm.." He swallowed.

"I must say Mrs. Cream...Vanilla is it? You do make some lovely food!" Vanilla smiled.

"Well, I did take cookery back in High School.." she said happily, it was nice to know her food was appreciated.

"Yeah, so anyway guys, us three are going to go find an emerald Coco picked up on the main scanner." Tails was explaining to everyone about their plans for the day.

"Huh, okay," Crunch nodded.

"I also pin pointed a Power Crystal earlier." Tails turned his head, and looked a little shocked.

"How?" he asked, a little bewildered.

"Oh, I forgot to say, Coco built a Crystal Tracker a while back, well, actually she built three, all in one hour. She gave one to herself, me and Crash." Crunch explained quickly. Tails looked impressed and nodded.

"Hey, while you three go get the chaos emerald, me and the others can go get the Power Crystal, how does that sound?" Amy proposed this idea forward. Coco nodded in agreement.

"Sure! Y'know what a Power Crystal looks like...right?" Amy looked a bit thoughtful.

"Umm...big...long...pink...kinda glowy..right?" she said. Coco giggled and nodded.

"Yeah, exactly." she nodded. A little later, when everyone was about to go out, Crash found Tails sitting down in the living room, hands clasped together, looking down at the floor. Crash sat down beside him and poked his shoulder.

"You okay buddy?" he asked. Tails sighed and nodded.

"I'm fine..." he said.

"It's just..." Crash cut him off.

"Coco?" Tails nodded.

"Yeah...Coco..I was with her on the hill last night, and my nerves were getting to me..." he sighed disgruntlement and rest his forehead on his hands.

"I just don't know how to tell her...Every time there's a good opportunity the butterflies in my stomach clog up my voice-box..." he mumbled. Crash rubbed his hand on the fox's shoulder supportively.

"Sometimes it just happens naturally." he said.

"One day you'll get that burst of courage and confidence naturally to tell her." Tails sighed and smiled, then looked up at Crash.

"I guess you're right..." he said quietly.

"But...I'm worried that she might get hurt out there...I don't want to carry any more guilt around with me.." Crash sighed a little.

"Tails, lil' buddy, you worry a tad too much...Just cool off a little, think positive thoughts..The time will come on it's own." Tails smiled happily.

"Thanks Crash." he said. Crash patted the kitsune's shoulder. Unbeknownst to both of them, Coco herself was just outside of the living room, listening in. She had a huge blush on her face the whole time.

"..." she didn't say word. She slowly walked away, taking the flower out of her hair and holding to her chest happily. She kissed the flower gently. As far as she was concerned, the flower represented Tails to her. She sighed and put the flower back in her hair. Crash and Tails went out of the living room. Crash spotted Coco with the flower to her chest.

"Okay, you go get ready, I'll catch up to you in a bit." he said to Tails, who nodded, not seeing Coco. As Tails went into the kitchen to talk to the others, Crash ran up to Coco.

"Hey Coco, can I talk to you for a sec?" he asked. Coco looked round at her brother, the blush still lingering on her face.

"Huh? Oh yeah, s-sure.." the blonde Bandicoot nodded shyly. Crash took her shyness into account. He ushered her into the living room. She sat down on the sofa, and Crash sat next to her.

"Wh-What do you want to talk about?" She asked nervously. Crash raised an eyebrow.

"Why are you so shaky?" he asked. Coco shivered a little, then shrugged.

"I dunno...Anticip-pation?" she stuttered.

"Coc, you never get this shaky when you're in anticipation. Seriously, I'm your brother, you can tell me anything. What's Wrong?" Crash sighed a little. Coco looked down at her shoes, squirming a bit.

"It's just...I heard you and Tails talking just now...about me...you said that he'll tell me something naturally...what was it? Why is he shy about it?" Coco asked. Crash was a little silent, thinking about what he should say.

"Well, I can't really say what he said, but he doesn't want you to get hurt on this outing. It seems that every time some one he likes gets hurt in his presence, he takes on a guilt trip. I dunno why." Coco seemed a little confused.

"But...a couple of days ago, he only said he got like that when this Cosmo girl got hurt, and that was because he lov..." she froze, as the penny dropped, as realisation dawned.

"..no...h-he doesn't...he can't do.." she mumbled.

"Should I leave you with your own thoughts?" Crash asked. Coco nodded.

"Much obliged..." Coco whispered. As Crash left the room, Coco felt a little faint.

"Wow...d-does he?.." she said to herself. She took the flower from her hair and held it close to her heart.

"See you in a few hours guys!" Crunch called out as he, Amy, Carbon and Cream set off in the opposite direction to Crash, Coco and Tails.

"Yep! Seeya!" Tails waved happily.

"Okay, which way." Crash muttered to himself, tapping a few buttons into the Emerald Tracker, despite not having a clue what it did. Tails looked over at Coco, who was looking down at her feet a little, the white flower clutched in her hands.

"Coco?" he asked quietly. Coco looked up sharply.

"Hmm? S-Sorry, kinda zoned out there." She chuckled, a ^^ expression on her face. Tails smiled. "Oh Okay, you always do that these days." he smirked.

"Yeah, dunno why." Coco giggled and shrugged.

"Hey Guys! I think I got something!" Crash suddenly said, the Emerald Tracker coming to life. Tails turned to see it.

"Which way?" he asked.

"I thiiiink...South!" Crash pointed to the south.

"Crash that's the North, you've got the device upside down." Tails chuckled, turning it the right way up. As Tails turned away, Coco sighed blissfully.

'Oh Tails...if only I had the guts...' she thought to herself dreamily.

"Okay! We got the exact location! Lets go!" Tails smiled Crash had already set off, Tails looked back at Coco, and he noticed she'd zoned out again. He smiled, blushing a little. He walked over to her and gently took her hand. Coco snapped out of her daze, and blushed extremely hard.

"Come on Sleepy Head, we need to get moving." The twin tailed fox grinned. Coco looked down at their hands, then back up at Tails and nodded.

"Y-Yeah..s-sure.." Tails quickly followed Crash, Coco keeping up with him. The Blonde Bandicoot looked down at her and Tails' hands connected.

'Oh..My...God...' she thought, giggling and blushing.

Everything seemed pretty peaceful with Crunch and the rest. Cream was riding on Crunch's shoudlers. with Cheese floating around her head. Amy was having a lovely conversation with Carbon.

"Sooo, Wumpa Island is like one HUGE beach!" the Pink Hedgehog grinned ecstatically. Carbon nodded.

"Yup, It's beautiful, sun or moon." Amy's eyes were sparkling with excitement. "You've got to take me there! Please oh Please?" she yapped.

"That's not really for me to decide."

"I suppose Crash will allow it." Crunch chipped in. Amy jumped up with a 'Yay!' Cream was holding the Crystal Tracker.

"How's the radar Cream?" Crunch asked.

"Its says its straight ahead!" Cream smiled.

"Chao Chao!" Cheese chanted happily.

"Hey Crunch, do you think we could stop for a picnic when we find the Crystal? I brought some food!" Cream then asked. Crunch grinned.

"I don't see why not." They soon came to a rocky area.

"Guys! The Radar is glowing really bright. It's like right near us!" Cream suddenly alerted them. Crunch looked around.

"Can't see it.." he mumbled. Carbon sighed quickly and closed his eyes, his ears perking up. He could hear a faint hum.

"Hmm, it's coming from...over there! Be right back!" Carbon grinned. There was a largeish mound of rocks. Carbon quickly scaled it, looking around it, listening for the hum.

"Hmm..." Carbon took a while.

"I think I got it..." he murmured to himself. He tried shifting some rocks out the way.

"Nng...this is tough..." Carbon struggled to find a loose rock. Amy was about to help him out, when Crunch stopped her.

"Don't bother, Carbon gets a little ticked off if he needs help in something that isn't fighting." Amy nodded in understanding. Meanwhile in the sky, Rouge was gliding overhead.

"Guh, what to do what to do...I can't use any chaos emeralds...I need to leave those for Tails and company...what to do..." She looked downwards. She saw Carbon struggling to get something out of the mound of rocks. She gently glided down to the ground.

"Hey, looks like you need a bit of help." she grinned at Carbon. Carbon looked over at her.

"That won't be necessary." she grunted.

"Rouge? What're you doing here?" Amy immediately demanded. Rouge blinked.

"Chill hun..jesus..you're worse than Shadow at times..I'm just here to help." she scoffed. Carbon grunted a little, finding a loose set of rocks, pushing his hand in and scrabbling around.

"I said, assistance will be unneeded," he said.

"Oh c'mon hun." Rouge smirked a little. She walked over and put a gentle, yet forceful hand on Carbon's forearm, which was deep into the pile of rocks. Carbon was silenced, looking at Rouge's hand. A faint blush appeared on his cheeks.

"I think, sometimes a guy like you needs..." Rouge suddenly pushed Carbon's arm deeper into the rock pile. Carbon was surprised. He wrapped his hand around the Crystal inside.

"A little Woman's Touch." Rouge finished her sentence.

"Uhh...Thanks..." Carbon mumbled. He yanked the Crystal out of the Rock Pile with force. Crunch watched the whole thing in confusion. Cream looked down at Amy.

"Amy?" she asked quietly. Amy was steaming with fury.

"Soooooo, the Emerald should be just ahead." Crash said to himself.

"Well, according to this tracker. I still don't know how to work this thing." Tails and Coco chuckled. Though she didn't look it, she was a little concerned. She and Tails had been holding hands all the way, and she could feel something. Tails hand had a somewhat permanent shake in his hand. It was very very small, only feeling by feeling his hand you would be able to know. Coco wondered why his hand was shaking like this. Tails didn't seem to notice that his hand was shaking at all. Tails sighed.

"Lemme have a look at that Crash." he smiled. He let go of Coco's hand and looked at the scanner.

"Yep, we're near it!" the kitsune nodded. Coco looked at the Tracker.

"Hmm, according to these muffled readings...it seems its underground somewhere." she said like a professional technician.

"Ah Christ..." Crash groaned.

"Oh c'mon Crash, what's what's wrong with the underground." Coco suddenly whispered in his hair.

"He hates it when dirt gets in his fur." she giggled. Tails stifled and laugh. Crash rolled his eyes.

"Its not that! Its that we don't have any digging stuff!" he exclaimed. Tails shrugged.

"I can deal with that." he smiled. Crash looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"Really?" he asked.

"Really." Tails smirked confidently.

Sonic ran across plains of fields, checking his wrist every know and then. On his wrist, Cortex's navigator was attached like a watch. He was sweating a little. He was worried. More worried than he had ever been. A monster had made its presence felt in Cortex's base. He knew what it was.

'What a FOOL I was to think I could keep something like that under control!' The Blue Speed Demon thought to himself. He bashed himself in the head.

'Stupid Stupid STUPID!' he eventually ran across a big-ish building. Sonic checked the small wrist watch again.

"This is the place.." he mumbled to himself. The building was like a big Mafia hideout, like the ones Sonic had seen in countless films. He hastily walked up and wrapped on the door. There was a big wait. Sonic tapped his foot a little, and he knocked on the door again, a little more forcefully. This time, almost instantly, the door flung open, and Sonic was greeted by the nozzle of an AK 47.

"Okay Punk, Whadya Want?" Snarled what seemed to be some kind of Weasel in a suit. Sonic took a few steps back.

"Woah Woah! Ch-Chill! Jesus!" Sonic stammered.

"Answer my question ya schmuck, whadya want?" the Mafia guy snapped. Sonic quickly fished into his pocket and pulled out a small card and tossed it to the Weasel.

"I was sent here by Dr. Neo Cortex." he said. The weasel blinked, and lowered his gun.

"Ahh, Ol' Cortex ey?" he grinned.

"Yeah, Cortex." Sonic nodded.

"Pinstripe Potoroo? Am I right?" Pinstripe nodded.

"Yah come to tha right guy. Come on in." Pinstripe waved a beaconing hand for Sonic to come in. Sonic followed him in and looked around. The walls were laden with firearms, everything from pistols, shotguns, machine guns, Snipers, every gun you could imagine. Sonic whistled in amazement.

"Wowser, you sure know your guns." he grinned.

"So, never seen you aroun' Cortex's base. You a new recruit?" Pinstripe questioned, lounging back in an arm chair.

"Nah, no chance. Name's Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog. I'm just in joint co-operation with Cortex. Y'See, we have common enemies, so we're working together." Sonic explained. The suited Potoroo nodded with interest. "Lemme guess. One of them would be...Crash Bandicoot.." Pinstripe shuddered as he said this. Sonic nodded.

"Indeed. Cortex said that you had the ability to get inside Crash head. How?" he asked.

"Tawna!" Pinstripe suddenly called out in a loud voice.

"Grab ya gun! We got shit ta shoot!" he hollered. There was a thundering upstairs.

"Seriously? Cortex has contacted us finally!" a female voice was heard. Suddnely, a bandicoot with a full head of poofy blonde hair burst through the door, armed with a sniper rifle. She immediately set her sights on Sonic. "Who's...this?.." she asked, a little worry in her voice.

"This is Sonic. He's Cortex's Co-operative Assistant." Pinstripe explained. Tawna nodded.

"Huh, 'kay, makes sense." Sonic sighed and crossed his ankles over.

"So...how can you get inside Crash's head?" Sonic asked again. Pinstripe laughed.

"This girl IS the reason! This is Crash's ex girlfriend. Her name is Tawna. Tawna Bandicoot. Beautiful, Smart, and a Crack Shot with a Sniper Rifle." Pinstripe grinned widely. Sonic nodded at Tawna, smiling.

"Pleased to make your acquaintances." he said quietly.

"Now, we best be planning our attack, if we can pinpoint their location, to do that, we better head back to Cortex's." Tawna grinned, and Pinstripe took hold of his AK 47 and racked it, smiling evilly.

"Lets do this..."

**AUTHOR NOTE**

Don't expect any new chapters of CL for a while, as I want to focus on my other fics and school, thanks


	22. A Message to all of you

Hey Guys, Ebil here

I think it's been nearly a year since I quit fanfiction.

Recently Ive been mourning how I stopped production of Crash Landing.

So Im making this little message to all of you

1 Thank you for the support of the story.

2 If you WANT me to continue the story, if you still care, throw me a pm or Review this 'chapter' telling me

Peace Out

Ebil


	23. The Fight, The War

_Authors _Note: Man_, has it been like, a year or something? I dont know, I lost track. If you're still here actually waiting for this, then I have to thank you with all my amazement. If you are still here, at least the human race has displayed signs of patience. _

_I just want to quickly note, I will be dropping a lot of the side plots, an example being Chaos' involvement._

Crash sighed in relaxation and sat against a rock.

"Soooooo...without any digging equipment..." he asked Tails slowly, a inquiring look on his face. "How in Aku Akus name are we gonna get underground and retrieve the Emerald?"

Tails grinned confidently, putting his backpack down and sitting on the ground.

"Well, there's a little trick I know." he said, loosening up his knuckles and the rest of his body "I learned it when I was about 8..." he fell silent for a while.

"Tails?" Crash raised and eyebrow, poking the kitsune's arm. Tails made a short puzzled noise, shaking his head to get himself back into reality.

"Oh right, sorry, zoned out." he smiled, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.

"And you say _I_ phase out a lot." Coco giggled, sitting down in relaxation.

"Yes, because you do!" Tails laughed. Crash let out a small chuckle.

"He got you there Coc."

Coco laughed cutely and shrugged.

"Well you know we _are_ quite similar. I wouldn't be surprised if there was even more things similar with us." she smiled.

"Well...you probably haven't had a loved one die.." Tails mumbled, sighing and hanging his head

"Awwww don't remind yourself Tails, I don't want you going all deep on us." Coco smiled encouragingly, sitting by Tails and rubbing his shoulder happily.

"Yeah, you still have that plant pot on your window sill. That girl...Cosmo was it?...Her spirits still there." Crash smiled.

"Her Spirit?..." Tails asked, confused.

"Yeah. Well, it's something me, Crash and Crunch believe in. It's something that comes with the ancients of Wumpa Island. When someone passes away, the Essence of their soul still lingers around the one they truly loved." Coco explained.

"So...what you're saying...if Cosmo truly loved me...she would still be around here? As a ghost kind of thing?" Tails asked.

"Pretty Much." Crash nodded.

"Then...how come I haven't seen any trace of her in 1 and a half years?..." The twin tailed fox mumbled sadly. Coco and Crash were silent.

"Doesn't matter. It's your belief I guess." Tails quickly said, gulping a littile. He REALLY hoping he hadn't insulted them Coco smiled and rubbed his shoulder encouragingly. "Maybe she'll appear soon. So don't worry" she quickly explained, giving Tails a quick hug. Tails looked over at her and smiled, staring into her deep blue eyes, a blush coming to both of their faces. Crash chuckled.

"Yooooooooooung Loooooooooooooooooooooove~" he sang teasingly. Tails and Coco both eeped quickly and scooted away from each other, blushing very hard, Tails rubbing the back of his head, Coco twiddling her thumbs.

"I'm Joking guys!" Crash laughed, almost falling over in hysterics. Tails still had a pinkish red tint on his cheeks

"Yeah...J-Joking.." he laughed nervously. Coco nodded, her face sheer crimson.

Sonic tossed a handgun up into the air and caught it again, looking at the side.

"Magnum 3x81..." he mumbled. "What the hell does that mean?"

"It's the make of the gun." Pinstripe explained. Sonic looked a little impressed,but still confused. The 3 of them were in a firing range, warming up their shots. Sonic seemed to spending more time spinning the gun around his index finger, practising show-boat holstering and fancy unholstering. When he did come to fire a shot down the aisle, the gun went off with a resounding bang, and the gun popped right out of his hand! The hedgehog yelped in surprise, juggling it around a little, since he was still shaken, before catching it. He chuckled darkly.

"Hehe...Now THIS...is a nice weapon." he snickered, examining it again. He unclipped the magazine to inspect the bullets. "Imagine this thing with Incendiaries!"

Tawna was leaning down on her stomach, leant over the firing range, her Sniper Rifle equipped with a nice scope. With every shot she fired, Sonic couldn't help but admire her body.

"Hey...Stripes?...That's a mighty fine bod on your girl there."

Pinstripe guffawed. "AhAha! You keep your hands off her Sonny Boy. Unless..." he pointed his AK at his chin, a complete emotion change crossing his face into one of anger. "...You LIKE having bullets in your face." Sonic felt a bead of sweat roll down his forehead.

"I wasn't planning on doing anything with her. I was just complimenting her! Honest!" he quickly retorted. Pinstripe guffawed, easing his hold on the gun.

"Hah! I'm only messin' with yous Sonic." the Weasel like creature grinned evilly.

"I hope you are..." Sonic mumbled under his breath, putting some more ammo into the Magnum and having another shot, trying to lean how to manage the recoil. Tawna was seen having a cute but devilish smirk on her lips.

Beep.

Beep.

Coco clutched a small one handed device in her hand. The machine had a screen attached to a bi-pod that was fastened to a very thin, revolver looking thing. The barrel was ejecting a wide green beam that swept back and forth over the grassy field.

"Soo, remind me what this is again?" Crash asked, crossing his ankles over, letting out a bored sigh.

"It's a device that'll help us find the exact location of the Emeralds...Crystals which ever of the two we're trying to find." Tails explained. Crash raised an eyebrow, and shrugged.

"Meh, at least you gave me a simple explanation. _Hint, Hint_." The Older Bandicoot grinned at Coco. Coco rolled her eyes and giggled.

"You choose to listen Bro!" she responded. The device suddenly made a lot of noise, a bright yellow mark appearing on the bi-pod mounted screen.

"Hey Tails! The CETO's acting up!" Coco suddenly alerted. Immediately, scooted beside her to check the screen. Crash's face went blank.

"See...Toe?..." he tilted his head ever so slightly.

"CETO, Crystalioni-Electinox-Transmitting-Orthagonascope." Coco quickly explained. Almost too quickly, slurring the words into one. Crash's expression immediately became blank and gormless. Tails and Coco looked at each other, and couldn't help but burst out laughing uproariously.

A little while later, the 3 had detected the exact location of whatever was below, be it Chaos Emerald or Crystal.

"Well? Time for digging buddy?" Crash raised an eyebrow in interest.

"Indeed" Tails gave him a thumbs up and a wink. Coco couldn't help but blush at that.

'He's so cute when he gets all confident.' she thought giddily to herself, shuffling her feet gently.

Tails braced himself a little getting into a position as if he were going for a 100m sprint. The Bandicoots watching him intently, Coco leaning forward a little from her seated, knees tucked to chest position. Suddenly, the twin tailed fox rolled up into a ball, visually spinning faster than a saw blade, making the same sound as one, his tails being the only thing distinguishable apart from the large fuzzy orange ball. Crash and Coco's eyes became alight with amazement as Tails bored his way directly vertical downwards, drilling a hole in the rocky ground. The two soon had to shield their eyes through, flying pieces of earth flying every which way, spraying in all directions.

As Tails was drilling, he suddenly fell quite fast, hitting some sort of ground beneath him with a thud. "W-What The?..." he mumbled to himself. Light filtered into the found cavern he had somehow discovered by sheer accident. Tails couldn't help but grin as he saw the Green Chaos Emerald perched nicely on a small rock pedestal. He walked over and picked it up. He then took note of the etchings of the wall. The walls showed etchings of Kite shaped objects and Odd Upside down triangles. They bared an uncanny resemblance to The Power Crystals and The Chaos Emeralds. "...I've seen those before..." he gasped lightly, uncovering bits of dust from the wall, using the shine of the emerald as light. He suddenly began to have a flashback

_'Back at the caverns where me and Coco were trapped for a few hours...These were on the wall...what do they mean?...'_

He dusted another slab of rock off, unable to define the shape he found...

"Tails? Y'aight in there?" Crash called down. Tails shook his head, getting back on topic.

"Yeah I'm alight! Got the Emerald!" He flew up a little, just enough to latch onto the walls of the hole he made. Crash heaved him up out, and to his feet.

"Let's see!" Coco got to her feet. Tails carefully revealed the Emerald gingerly in his hands. It's sparkled quite brightly in the summer sun. "Wow.." Coco beamed widely. "It's real pretty~"

"And Also really rare. Only seven real ones exist-" Tails began.

A gunshot suddenly ripped through the quiet air, and Tails let out a yell of pain a splash of red crossing his left hand. The emerald tumbled out of his hand.

"Tails!" Coco gasped in horror. Crash was startled. The emerald rolled softly infront of them, a long way. A well made leather shoe stopped it in its path. The shoe belonged to Pinstripe Pootoroo, Assault Rifle in hand, locked and loaded. The moment Crash laid eyes on him, something snapped inside his mind. The rage in his eyes spoke volumes. That smirk on Pinstripes face didn't help.

"..Tails are you okay?!" Coco quickly stammered, quite freaked out. Tails groaned in pain, holding his hand as if it had just been stamped on.

"I'll live.." Tails quickly reassured her, giving his hand a light shake. He took one glance at Crash, and looked a little shock. "I think you should be a bit more worried about your brother..."

Crash really wasn't all there. His heart thudded like mad at the very sight of the mafia stylized mammal before him. He gripped his spiked hair quickly, taking out a bit of frustration. Pinstripe couldn't help but let out a small chuckled as the teen bandicoot huffed lightly.

"'Tis been to long yah mute wannabe." he grinned, baring a set of perfect white teeth. Crash snarled lightly.

"Who you calling Mute?" he simply retorted. Pinstripe looked a little taken aback.

"Well this is a development." the pootoroo forced a small smile. "It's not like speech can affect the facts 'tat I has the gun."

"Take away the gun and where do you stand then?" Crash immidately said back. "Just a weasel."

Now it was Pinstripe's turn to get steamed up. "I. Am NOT a weasel!"

Still trying to shake his hand free of pain, Tails couldn't help but be curious. "Coco?.." he began to say, but Coco seemed to already know what he was going to say.

"Pinstripe Pootoroo. Crash's well...emotional rival. He stole his love, Tawna, remember how I was talking about her? Crash's darkest days spawned from that."

Out in the distance, Sonic sat on a cliff, watching Tawna silently, climb a tree somewhat nearby the location of the event. He let out a small sigh, at once followed by an eep of pain, a small spark shooting from his ear. It felt like his brain was on fire. He quickly shook his head and lay back with a small groan. He suddenly got about a million thoughts flowing into his mind, odd ones, thoughts of...well, a good hearted nature, but one stood out amongst the rest.

Why?

Why what? Agh! Why was he having these thoughts.

He jolted lightly. "God..." he sat up, a small ringing in his ear. He panted softly, closing his eyes lightly. 'What's happening to me?' He thought.

Pinstripe examined the emerald thoughtfully. "Mighty fine jewel yous got. I bet Tawna would like this in a ring." Crash twitched.

"Still with her? After what, 10 years?" he snapped.

"Hellova lot longer than you two." He scoffed, lifting his machine gun up to Crash's temple, lightning fast, causing a small squeak from Coco.

Crash had to be fast, grabbing the barrel of the gun and diverting it quickly as bullets rang out from the gun, slashing the ground. Crash flinched, holding his ear in pain, but recovered quickly. A sharp elbow to the face later, and Crash had Pinstripe disarmed. Pinstripe blinked.

"Yous was never tat fast..." He muttered. Crash shrugged casually, cracking his knuckles.

"10 years can do a lot, weasel." he grinned, before throwing the first punch, which floored Pinstripe instantly. Crash shook his head and chuckled.

"See? Nothing without your little toy are you?" Crash smiled, being down and swiping the emerald from the ground. Pinstripe grunted, wiping at his nose, checking for blood.

"Not...a...weasel.." he glowered. He seemed to put a finger to his ear, mumbling something.

Coco noticed this almost immediately, suddenly getting a through. Staying with Tails the whole way, she surveyed the grassy plains. Then she saw it, a small glint. It was the smallest, but it was enough. She had to gulp down initial fear, her brow creasing in determination.

"Tails. Stay here. Don't let anything happen to Crash." she quickly said the the fox. Tails didn't fully understand, but he nodded. Coco smiled, and gave his hand a small reassuring squeeze.

"I'll be fine, I promise." she said.

"Oh I'm not doubting you." Tails said back, getting to his feet. Coco noticed that there was a little uncertainty in his face as she left quickly, using a few trees as cover...

Pinstripe took his hand from his ear, glaring at the 2 friends. "Yous two think yous so clever and cool. I bet it's just hot air." he snapped. Crash raised a confused eyebrow.

"Pins I just disarmed you and almost broke your nose. And that's just me, Tails hasn't even started on you." Crash grinned down at Tails. Tails meeped, somewhat.

"You flatter me." he simply replied, chuckling with a small blush of sorts.

Meanwhile, in a tree not-so far away, Tawna switched off her earpiece, folding the microphone over so the device rested by her mouth. She carefully perched her large sniper rifle in a Y shaped opening in the tree, very much concealed. She closed one eye and looked down the scope, which in all reality was half of a binocular taped onto the gun, with cross-hairs drawn onto it.

"Taking aim..." she murmured into the device. "Good times and bad times Crashy~" she whispered, her bright red lips curling into a seductive smile. Her Crosshair drifted over Crash's forehead.

"But I think this maybe the _best_ time~" her finger hooked around the trigger...

She suddenly yanked backwards, yelping in surprise, her rifle pointing right into the air, and firing with an ear-shattering bang. The noise made Pinstripe, Crash and Tails all quake in their shoes, jerking and looking around in fright. The noise caused birds in the trees to scatter.

Tawna looked behind her with a look of sheer bewilderment. "Who the FUCK are you?!" she cried at the blonde haired bandicoot beneath her, who had a tight grip on her ankle. Coco simply grinned and chuckled.

"Yeah didn't think you'd remember me." she simply said, glaring her in the eye. Tawna growled furiously, using her other leg to kick at Coco's head. After a few kicks Coco still hadn't let go, but had a small mud mark on her face.

Crash ran past Pinstripe. "What the hell was that?!" he called out. Tails face went a little white.

'Coco...' was the first thing that came to his mind. Pinstripe cursed to himself due to Tawna's mishap. Out of rage, he suddenly launched a punch right at Crash's head, flooring him almost immediately.

"Ah crap." Tails cursed, quickly flying at top speed at Pinstripe and grabbing his arms to stop any further assault on his friend.

Eventually Tawna was able to shake free of Coco's grasp, giving her a heavy kick that staggered her back. She jumped down from the tree.

"Who the hell do you think you are? Trying to piss off a trained killer like me? Huh?" she wanted an answer. Coco glared.

"Less talk, mor kicks." she dared, following up with a harsh kick to Tawna's knee, toppling the taller woman. Tawna yelped, her knee in agony. Her hand instinctively darted to her side arm. Coco almost immediately batter her hand away with a quick kick.

"Take your boyfriend and leave." Coco growled threateningly. She looked confident as all creation, but she was scared. Her fist had a small nervous shake in it, and her heart was pounding.

Pinstripe hit the ground with a loud thud, Tails shook his fist. "Ow...you have a solid face you...weasel...thing...What are you meant to be anyway?" he calmed down, actually taking time out to think.

"He's a Potoroo, Tails, it's like if a kangaroo was the size of a rat." Crash explained lightheartedly. "..I _think_.."

Pinstripe groaned. "I's bein toyed wis by idiots..." he growled, fumbling around inside his jacket.

"Hey Crash, can you keep an eye on him? I need to find Coco.." the fox quickly said, before taking off towards where he heard the sniper rifle. Crash was about to make a relationship joke, but knew it'd be in bad taste, given the situation.

Coco was a little out of breath, after missing a few of her last kicks. Tawna had a bruise forming on her cheek. Tawna backed up, resting against the tree, feeling her cheek. "You...complete.." she growled. Coco panted, gulping, her fear starting to show through, which Tawna picked up on.

"Oh?" Tawna smiled, an evil tone ringing in her voice. "The little girl scared now?" she smiled, pushing herself off the tree, grabbing the other bandicoot girl and pinning her against the tree, her forearm at her throat. Coco gasped, trembling in sheer fear. Tawna giggled in a very odd sadistic tone, her hand slinking to her side, picking her pistol from her holster, slowly, threateningly. Coco whimpered, opening her mouth.

"Don't you dare make a noise..." Tawna swiftly put the barrel of the gun to Coco's neck, glaring her in the eye. Coco nodded, sweating somewhat. She then shouted, trying to strike Tawna in the neck. Tawna grabbed her hand with the arm she was using to pin her throat.

"Nah, ah, ahhh~" she smiled, clicking the gun into active firing mode.

"COCO!" a shout came from behind. Tails had found them. Tawna was startled, quickly whisking around, aiming the gun behind her. Tails was charging right for her. The fear in Tawna's eyes was understandable.

Then the unthinkable happened.

She pulled the trigger. The bullet flew right into Tails' skull. Coco went pale and screamed in terror. Tails staggered to a halt, his head hung, his body obviously fighting a losing battle.

Then his head snapped up, his neck making several audible cracks. His eyes were a bright white colour, completely. No iris, no pupil. Just sheer white.

"**Oohoo, this is the part where it gets goood...**" a demonic that could shake mountains rang out, as dark energy crawled up his arms.


End file.
